The Princess of Thieves
by hadesgirl015
Summary: Shortly after the battle with Gaea, a new demigod is discovered. But when someone steals ALL the items it is up to her, Percy and Nico to get them back. A/N I own pretty much nothing accept Natalie. Even though Percy and Nico are the only characters listed a lot of the people are in here. But those two play a bigger part.
1. Chapter 1 Kicked Out

Chapter 1: Kicked out

Natalie Cox was siting in the back of the Math room in her desk, studying for her Geometry final; or at least that's what the teacher thought she was doing. Natalie was actually planning, but not planning how to study, she was planning a heist. Hey this wasn't the first time, maybe the twelfth, for this school. She has been in four different schools over her eight years. She started the pranks and stealing around second year of school, in fourth grade when she was about eight. Natalie was never really sure why she did it, she was just glad she found something she good with. She was never good in school, she had dyslexia and ADHD so she never did well in classes, and how she got this far she wasn't even sure.

"Perfect." Natalie said softly to herself.

"What was that Ms. Cox?" her teacher Mr. Lopez asked.

"Nothing." Natalie said. Somehow Mr. Lopez heard every soft whisper. Maybe he took vitamins for his ears or something.

Natalie had the perfect plan for a prank and theft. She was going to get sneak into the head masters office and change her grades from D's to A's. While in there she was going to steal all the suckers he kept in a jar. Yeah why steal those, but he never shared them and he was always telling Natalie to get her grades up or he will be contacting her parents. Yeah right she thought.

Natalie liked to think of herself as the best prankster/thief ever. She could do stuff with out ever getting caught. She was actually caught only about three times out of what was it now 50? Only those times because some kid insisted that they helped and always did something stupid that lead themselves to be caught. And of coarse the always squealed and busted her.

As the bell rang to signal the end of class and of the school day Natalie ran back to her dorm. The school was a boarding school called Yancy Academy, even saying the name made Natalie want to vomit. Once in her dorm Natalie got changed. She changed into a black T-shirt and sweat pants, even though it was near the end of May. She put on her black baseball cap and pulled her short auburn hair into it. She also put in these special contacts that made her blue eyes seem brown. This was why Natalie was never caught. She also always wore gloves. The staff usually left the office around 4:30 and it was 4 o'clock. Perfect and all the students would be in their rooms studying for their finals.

At 4:26 Natalie left her room. She changed into tennis shoes she never wore and tucked the bottoms of her pant legs into her socks. Sure it looked stupid but it wouldn't allow for anything that would lead the prank/crime to her. She also put on some gloves as to avoid fingerprints. The office was locked of coarse but not a problem, Natalie could pick a lock easily. Once in the office it was easy enough to get on the computer and change the grade. But once she grabbed the suckers everything went wrong. Some kid must have got in trouble cause through the translucent window Natalie saw the shadow of the head master and a boy.

"Oh snap!" Natalie thought. She looked around for any place to hide, there was nothing. Then she saw a closet. "Good enough!" she thought. She jumped into the closet and closed the door, not a moment later Headmaster Shay opened the door to his office and lead in a kid.

Natalie couldn't see anything but could hear everything.

"You know why you're in here Mr. Cashman?" Mr. Shay asked.

Mr. Cashman, it must have been James, he always got in trouble for attempting basically everything Natalie did, accept he got caught.

"I stole the toilet paper from all the restrooms." James said like he was proud.

"Who wants to steal toilet paper?" Natalie thought to herself.

"You know what the punishment for stealing is?" Mr. Shay asked.

"Detention?" James asked.

"Yes. Take this to the Library." Mr. Shay said. He must have handed him a detention slip. Natalie heard the door to the office open and shut.

"Get out of the closet." Mr. Shay said

"Uh-oh" Natalie said softly

"Come on I don't have all night." Mr. Shay said.

Natalie came out of the closet. She saw the headmaster. He was this kind of cool, normal looking middle-aged man. He had a neatly trimmed brown beard and curly brown hair. His eyes, oh man his eyes, they seemed to see everything and have seemed everything. I guess the main thing to know was that he was in a motorized wheelchair.

"Um, hi sir." Natalie said.

What else was she supposed to say? She was hiding in his closet wearing black clothes and gloves. It would be quite obvious that she was up to no good. "Have a seat Ms. Cox." Mr. Shay said. So Natalie sat down in the chair across from Mr. Shay. She also had that looked she hated. She had upturn eyebrows and slightly pointed ears so she was usually marked as a trouble maker and she kind of lived up to the expectation by sometimes causing trouble in class. It also didn't help her record that she was kicked out of three schools.

"What are you up to?" Mr. Shay asked.

Natalie didn't know how to answer that she didn't even look up.

"Natalie, you were clearly on my computer, what were you doing?" Mr. Shay asked.

Natalie never admitted to anything so she had no idea what to do. She remembered hearing a saying, 'the truth will set you free.' Maybe if she told the truth she wouldn't get in trouble. She was wrong. "I was changing my grades, my mom thinks I'm stupid. I want to show her I'm not by getting A's on my report card."

"So cheating." Mr. Shay said.

"Well not cheating per say. I mean I have to be pretty smart to get in here and figure out how to get on the locked computer and change the grade." Natalie said.

"I'm afraid I'll have to expel you, and you won't be able to take your final's" Mr. Shay said.

"So I'll get and F on my finals?" Natalie asked.

"Yep." Mr. Shay said.

"Ugh." Natalie groaned and hit her head against the desk.

"Natalie, is there a pacific reason you do what you do?" Mr. Shay asked.

"I guess, I want someone to be proud of me, I don't know who, but no one can know what I do." Natalie said.

"What's your family situation?" Mr. Shay asked.

"I live with my mom during the summer. She works ten hours a day. We don't get along that well." Natalie said.

"What about your father?" Mr. Shay asked.

He never asked these kinds of questions.

"I never met him. He and my mom weren't married, I assume he's dead, or once he found out Mom was pregnant he left. Maybe it was an affair." Natalie said.

"Hum." Mr. Shay said. He handed her a small card, like a business card. "I want you to come see me this summer. Here is my address."

It took a while for Natalie to decipher what it said. 'Half-Blood Hill, Long Island, New York.'

"What's this about?" Natalie asked.

"This is about who I think your father is." Mr. Shay said.

"I never knew him, how could you?" Natalie asked.

Mr. Shay was quite for a while. "Natalie, have you ever heard of the Greek gods?"

"Like, Zeus, Hera, and Hades?" Natalie asked. Thunder boomed outside.

"Names are dangerous, you would be wise not to use them, but yes. Well, the gods they are real. They are still around, and currently they are in the United States." Mr. Shay said.

"And if they are still around, they still have kids with mortals?" Natalie asked.

"Precisely." Mr. Shay said.

"You think my father was…is a god?" Natalie asked.

"I have a feeling that is true." Mr. Shay said.

"Are the monsters still around too?" Natalie asked.


	2. Chapter 2 Answers

Chapter 2: Answers

Natalie got answer about ten seconds later, when Mr. Lopez came in the room. But he seemed super upset.

"You thought I wouldn't find her?" Mr. Lopez asked.

"What do you mean?" Mr. Shay said.

"I know who she is." Mr. Lopez said.

Just than Mr. Lopez began to change, into an ugly creature she didn't know how to describe him. She just recognized the thing from her mythology book.

"A fury!" Natalie said.

Faster than seemed possible Mr. Shay grabbed the bow and arrows that were hanging on the wall and quick as lightening shot the monster in the head.

"I think I just found out the answer to my question." Natalie said.

"This is not good. You must come to Camp right away." Mr. Shay said.

"Camp? What are you talking about? My math teacher was a monster and you just shot him in the head!" Natalie said.

"We need to get there fast, faster than any car can take us." Mr. Shay said.

"What in the world are you talking about?" Natalie asked.

During all this Mr. Shay was leading Natalie outside. Once outside he was shifting his weight. But he said he was paralyzed from the hips down. How could he get up. But eventually he was completely out Natalie thought she was going to have a panic attack. His upper body still looked the same but the bottom half, he was a white stallion. He was a…a…

"You're a centaur?" Natalie asked.

"Yes now come on." Mr. Shay said.

Natalie was standing right next to him and he did something surprising. He picked her up by her T-shirt and put her on his back. He picked up her up as if she was nothing more than a rag doll. He started to run or gallop she guessed. The world seemed to bend around them. It was only about a minute before he stopped and when she saw where she was she nearly fell of Mr. Shay's back.

"Mr. Shay, where are we?" Natalie asked.

"Welcome to Camp Half-Blood. A demigod training camp. And my name is not Mr. Shay, that was just a pseudonym. Every one here calls me Chiron." the ex-Mr. Shay said.

"Chiron, like the trainer of Heracles, Achilles, Theseus, and Jason?" Natalie asked.

"Yes, indeed. Come let's get someone to show you around." Chiron said.

Natalie had gotten off Chiron's back and was walking beside him. The place was amazing, the whole camp was in a valley. There was a huge strawberry patch off to the side. In the middle were a whole bunch of cabins all were designed differently. One looked like a bank, another like a factory. One was very similar to a tomb. The one that was the saddest seemed like a rundown on summer camp cabin. Natalie walked up to it, it had a caduceus above the door. Out of the cabin that looked like a low sea wall, walked a boy. He seemed to be about eighteen or possibly nineteen. He had tousled black hair and sea green eyes. He was nicely tanned and was quite tall.

He walked over and said, "Hey, my name is Percy Jackson, son of Poseidon."

"Natalie Cox." Natalie said.

"Well let's show you around." Percy said.

Percy showed Natalie around and explained quite a bit about the things about the camp. He showed her the cabins last. Sitting on the porch of the tomb cabin sat a boy. He seemed about her age maybe a tad older, he wore dark jeans, a black T-shirt, and an aviator's jacket. He was pale and had shaggy black hair, dark brown eyes and on his finger he wore a silver skull ring. Set next to him on the porch was a black sword. He was hot!

That was when Natalie realized she was still in her heist clothes, the black pants were still stuffed in her socks and her hair still shoved in her hat. She quickly bent down, acting as if she was tying her shoes but she pulled the pants out of the socks. On her way up she took off her hat. Her auburn hair tumbled out. She also acted like if she had something in her eyes, like dirt, popping out the contacts revealing her blue eyes.

He seemed to laugh and started coming over.

"Hey Percy. New camper?" the guy asked.

"Yep. This is Natalie. Natalie this is…" Percy started to say.

"Nico Di Angelo, son of Hades." the guy said.

"Wow." Natalie managed.

Nico smiled, oh man he was so hot.

"And who is your parent?" Nico asked.

"Um," Natalie said, not sure of what she should say.

"She's unclaimed currently." Percy said.

"Oh, well I am sure you will be claimed soon. Well I got to go." Nico said, then he melted into shadows.

"What?" Natalie asked. She wondered where the good looking guy went.

"Nico never sticks around for long." Percy said.

"Oh, what was that about claiming and unclaimed?" Natalie asked.

"Your godly parent has to claim you so we know what cabin to put you in. So who is it, your dad?" Percy explained then asked.

"Um, if you mean I never met my dad then yes." Natalie said.

"Well you're what fifteen?" Percy asked.

"Sixteen." Natalie corrected.

"Well you should be claimed by now, but maybe at the fire tonight or after capture the flag, we will find out who you father is." Percy said.

"Capture the flag?" Natalie asked with interest. Capture the flag had to be easy, especially since she was good at taking stuff with out being noticed.

"Yeah in the woods, if you aren't claimed before the start of it this evening you will be on the red team with Hermes, Ares, Hades, Dionysus, Hecate, Nemesis and Aphrodite cabins. While the blue team will be, Poseidon, Athena, Hephaestus, Demeter, Apollo, and Hypnos cabins." Percy said.

"So Nico is coming back to play?" Natalie asked hopefully.

"He said he was planing on it." Percy said.

This made Natalie happy. She would be able to see Nico again.

"Maybe you should go find where they are having their team meeting so they can figure where to put you." Percy said.

Natalie walked around camp until she saw a strange banner it was blood red stamped with a boar head and bloody spear. 'Isn't that the symbol of Ares?' Natalie thought. Then she remembered the Ares cabin was going to be on her team. So she walked over to the big group of kids gathered around it. There was maybe 23 kids some looked slightly similar, but looked different through out. She walked up to them. They were all in full Greek Battle armor with red horse tail plumes.

"Um, I am joining your team I guess." Natalie said.

"New camper?" a boy curly brown hair and a look that meant he was probably thinking up some to cause no good.

"Yeah." Natalie said.

"Regular or undetermined?" a boy who looked just like the first asked.

"Undetermined." Natalie said.

The two boys groaned and so did another guy in the crowd.

"Travis and Connor! Pay attention." a beefy girl with string brown hair who wore a sneer yelled.

"We are Clarisse!" one of the boys mentioned answered.

"So what's your name?" the girl who Natalie figured was Clarisse asked.

"Natalie Cox." Natalie replied.

"Well, let's figure out where to put you." Clarisse said.

"Not that it will matter. The other team has Annabeth, she is the best strategist in camp. We will lose for sure." The other look-a-like boy said.

"Connor shut your trap, before I cut it out!" Clarisse said.

"That is harsh." the other boy who Natalie now assumed to be Travis said.

"You too!" Clarisse yelled at Travis. Was she like daughter of Ares because she sure was aggressive. "Now Natalie, what can you do? Can you sneak around unlike these two buffalo, children of Hermes?"

"Hurtful." Connor said.

"I'm pretty sneaky. I could probably get the flag easily." Natalie said.

"Good, Natalie I want you to go around the left flank and try to find the flag. Me and the other Ares campers will charge head on to try to distract them. Connor, Travis, and Chris go around the right flank and make as much noise as possible. Are goal is to try to draw them up the middle and right so Natalie here can get in on the left. Nico will help you Natalie if he shows." Clarisse started spitting directions, when she mentioned Nico will be working with her, Natalie's heart skipped a beat.

"Aphrodite people, I want you stationed about the woods on our side to try to pick off anyone. And Hecate I want you guys to lay traps, make about a 100 perimeter around the flag. And lastly Nemesis, you stand guard." Clarisse continued. "Everyone got that cause I am not repeating it again!"

No one dared to speak out. Mostly because Clarisse was the kind of person who wasn't afraid to do something if you tick her off.

"Okay, I think it is almost time for super." a guy who was standing awfully close to Clarisse, a boy friend possibly?

Right on cue a conch horn blow.

"Right on time Chris." Clarisse said than gave him a quick peck on the cheek. Yep definitely a boyfriend.

Chris, Travis, and Connor came up to Natalie. "Hey, since you will be in our cabin for a while you eat with us. Let's show you to the dinning pavilion." Travis said.

"So you guys are the sons of Hermes?" Natalie asked.

"Yep." Connor said.

Natalie wondered if she was going to get any more clothes because she was still wearing her tennis shoes and sweatpants. After supper, which was pretty good, although she had to dump some of it in a fire for the gods, Natalie headed for the Hermes cabin. In a duffel bag that was sitting on a bed was some of Natalie's clothes. Maybe Chiron sent someone to get them. Whatever, Natalie thought, she changed into jeans and a new T-shirt, she put her hat on the bed. Clarisse had already helped in getting Natalie some armor and a temporary sword. It was time for capture the flag.


	3. Chapter 3 Capture the Flag

Chapter 3:

Capture the Flag Natalie met up with the other members of the red team on the edge of the woods. "Okay red team, this time we won't lose." Clarisse was saying. "But they have Percy and Annabeth." Someone from the Hecate cabin said.

"So what?" Clarisse asked.

"Annabeth is the best strategist at camp, and Percy is the best swordsman in the past three hundred years!" the kid from Hecate said.

"Do I look like I care? We can work around Annabeth's strategy, and fight Percy in groups. And I don't stress this enough, don't fight him near or in the creek or any water source." Clarisse said. "I don't want a repeat of what happed his first time."

Natalie was confused by this. "Why?"

Everyone stared at her. Now she was embarrassed. But Clarisse didn't get mad.

"Guys it's her first day, she has a right to questions." Clarisse said. "Percy is the son of Poseidon. So he can control water and it heals him."

"Oh." Natalie said.

"So no more questions. Everyone get into position. I will go with the Nemesis cabin to set up the flag where we planned." Clarisse said.

There was a bone chilling breeze and all of the sudden Nico was there. He sort of melted out of the shadows.

"Good, Nico, you're here. You know your assignment?" Clarisse asked.

"Yeah go after the flag via, left flank." Nico said.

"Yes, but Natalie will be joining you." Clarisse said. "I want you guys to start 30 feet from the creek."

"Okay." Natalie and Nico said at the same time.

They all got into their positions. Nico and Natalie were hiding in the trees waiting for the starting signal. "You ready for this?" Nico asked.

"I guess." Natalie replied.

Just then a conch horn blew. "Come on." Nico said and they took off running.

It was hard to run in full Greek battle armor, but Natalie was pretty fast to start with so she was still considerably fast with the armor. Nico and Natalie were running for about 3 minutes but then they ran into a blue scout.

The scout lifted his blade but Nico caught it on his. They fought for about 5 seconds until Nico cried out, "Go Natalie! Find the flag."

Natalie took off running the direction they were going. She was about to give up until she saw a flash of blue. She sneakily approached. In the middle of the clearing was the blue flag, designed with a green trident. One guard stood on duty, unfortunately it was Percy Jackson.

Natalie careful approached, Percy hadn't noticed her yet. She grabbed the flag and walked calmly back the way she came. It was not until she was in the trees she started running back towards the creek. She had to be gone at least a minute until Percy noticed and came after her. Natalie had no idea how fast Percy could run but she had a good head start, but she was also carrying a flag.

The creek came into view. But when she was a yard away Percy got her. She had no choice but to stick the flag in the ground and duel with him. They were right when they said fighting him was a mistake.

Natalie was tired with the first few blows but Percy looked like he could fight an entire army. Percy gave a smile and seemed to be focusing over something just over her shoulder. She looked behind her and saw a twenty foot tall wall of water, a second later it came crashing down on her. It was a surprise but she kept her blade locked with Percy. Something seemed to be telling her to do something. She caught his hilt with her blade and twisted.

Percy's blade was sent flying in the air. Natalie caught it in mid-air and gave Percy a good kick to the chest making him fall on his back. Natalie then saw a bit of his shirt that was above his shoulder, it wasn't on the skin, so she had an idea. She stabbed Percy's sword into the ground pinning him there by his shirt.

Natalie turned grabbed the flag and ran onto her side of the creek. The Ares cabin saw the whole thing, and they broke out into cheering. Natalie brandished the flag.

Nico came up and to her and started talking, he looked a bit confused.

"The flag should've changed to the symbol of your cabin." Nico said.

"Well, I'm unclaimed, maybe it doesn't know what to change to." Natalie said.

The whole camp was now gathered round to see who got the flag, and bested Percy in a sword fight. Just then they all gasped and were staring at an image above Natalie's head. She looked up and saw a silver caduceus. She also noticed the flag changed to the same thing.

The thing that registered last was that everyone was knelling. Chiron had trotted over.

"What is going on?" Natalie asked.

"You have been claimed. Your father is Hermes, god of thieves, travelers, medicine, and messenger of the gods. All hail Natalie Cox, daughter of Hermes." Chiron said.


	4. Chapter 4 The Fight

Chapter 4: the Fight

Natalie was now going to stay in the Hermes cabin from now on, with her three half-brothers: Chris Rodriguez, and Travis and Connor Stoll. As far as Natalie figured Travis and Connor were actually brothers they weren't twins but were awfully close. Chris, like Natalie figured, was Clarisse's boyfriend. Connor said that Travis was going out with Katie Gardner, a daughter of Demeter. But Natalie was still just trying to figure this all out.

She was also wondering about her mother, did she know about dad being a god? Would she worry when Natalie didn't come back home? Sure Natalie and her mom weren't on the best terms. Her mom was probably overjoyed that she wasn't coming back.

She picked out a bunk and fell asleep. It only seemed like a few minutes but in the morning Chris was waking her up. "What?" Natalie asked sleepily. She was not really a morning person.

"Breakfast is in five, you need to get changed." Chris said.

Natalie climbed out of bed and got some clothes from her duffel bag. She then realized something, she was the only girl in the cabin. She sure as Hades wasn't going to change in front of them.

Connor seemed to notice. "Oh we had the Aphrodite cabin put this in." He climbed onto a top bunk and pulled off a curtain. It was nice and thick, it was silver and had a caduceus in the middle of it. He pulled the curtain across the room and it left her a space that divided the cabin completely so she had a nice area to change, separate form the boys.

Once she was done changing she pushed open the curtain some and walked back into the 'main' part of the cabin. "Okay guys, and er, girl ready for breakfast?" Chris asked.

"One second." Natalie said. She brought out her hair brush and hair tie and pulled her hair back into a ponytail. "Kay, now I am ready."

"On the way to the pavilion Chris was discussing the schedule for their cabin. After breakfast they will have archery with a few of the other cabins. After that we will have swords practice with Percy and Nico.

Natalie smiled; she got to work with Nico, again. But Percy was there, would he be mad about last night. Breakfast was good; there was scrambled eggs and turkey bacon, of coarse not as good as regular bacon, but still pretty good. She put some food in the center brazier as an offering for Hermes.

At the archery range, Natalie quickly found out she was not good at it. She nearly hit one of the Apollo instructors. So she tried her best but still rarely it the target.

The sword training went a lot better, she was good at it. Percy was late and as expected he was not to happy at Natalie for making a fool of him last night.

"I want a re-match. Here where neither of us have the upper hand." Percy said.

"Um. Okay, I guess." Natalie said.

Percy brought out his sword, Natalie got a better look at it this time, it was Celestial bronze like most of the demigods at camp weapons. It was about three feet long and a bit of a leaf shape. But what interested her the most was how it transformed. It started out as a normal looking ballpoint pen.

"Will I get a sword like that?" Natalie asked.

"This was a gift from my father, its name is Riptide." Percy said. "You will have to find your own weapon."

Natalie looked on the sword rack and tried to find a sword that looked well enough balanced for her, but it was hard. A lot were way to heavy, some were to long. But then her eye caught on something. The blade was about two feet long and glimmering bronze and gold, it seemed to be double edge. The hilt seemed to grip like a baseball bat in the fact that it was round. She played softball at school and went to some summer baseball camps over the years. She grabbed it and it felt perfect in her hands.

Natalie walked over to Percy, sword hand. "Okay ready."

"What are the terms?" Nico asked, with a bit of concern. Maybe he was worried for some ones safety, but it was impossible to tell whose.

"Anything goes, no killing or intentional maiming." Percy said.

"Kay, let's go." Natalie said.

They sparred for maybe two minutes until Percy caught her hilt with his blade. He started twisting, the sword was going to clatter out of her hands, so Natalie quickly devised a plan. She relaxed her grip on her sword and it fell out of her hands. The second Percy's sword was away from her she knelt into a crouch bend her knees and setting her hands on the ground and swept her left leg into Percy's now unstable legs. He quickly fell flat on his back, his own sword clattered out of his hands.

Natalie quickly grabbed both swords and had one in either hand and set a foot on Percy's chest and crossed the two blades to his neck. He stared up in shock, Natalie looked around and saw that Chris, Travis, Connor and Nico all had the same look as Percy.

"How?" Chris asked.

"Are we sure she isn't a daughter of Ares?" Connor asked.

"How could she beat Percy? Percy beat Kronos." Travis said.

Natalie, now a little embarrassed took her foot off Percy and handed him his sword. He took it in his right hand, and then grabbed Natalie's free hand with his left and she helped him up.

"Where did you learn to fight like that?" Percy asked.

"I don't know, I just did what seemed natural. Why?" Natalie asked.

"The only other person, who beat me, was Luke. I even beat Ares." Percy said.

Everyone looked sad at the mention of Luke. Who was Luke?

"I think this session is over." Chris said.

Travis, Connor, Chris and Percy left. That just left Natalie and Nico.

"Who is Luke?" Natalie asked.

"It's a long story." Nico said.

"I have no where to be." Natalie said.

Nico sighed. "Luke was a camper here, a son of Hermes, so your brother. He felt like the gods betrayed him and so he turned."

"Turned, like to the dark side?" Natalie asked.

Nico stared at her, "I guess, in a way. He got help from the titan lord Kronos. He started a war between the titans, monsters and some minor gods against the Olympian gods. We won, but not with out our losses." Nico said.

"What happened to Luke?" Natalie asked.

"He hosted the titan lord, in order to stop him he needed to die. Percy nearly beat him, but in the end Luke killed himself in order to stop him." Nico said. "He is in Elysium right now, but he says he plans on rebirth"

"So he is like Anakin in Star Wars." Natalie said.

"What?" Nico asked.

"In the third movie, he felt like the Jedi betrayed him, and he feel to the Dark Side with the Emperor. In the last movie he killed the Emperor but his breathing apparatus was damaged so he died. Luke is like Anakin and the Emperor is Kronos." Natalie said.

"If you want to think about it that way, sure." Nico said.

A few seconds of silence passed.

"You seem to be quite good with that sword, why not keep it?" Nico asked.

"Okay." Natalie said, she found a button on the bottom and pushed it. The sword shrunk down to the size of a MP3. In fact it looked just like a MP3 but on the button that looked like that it should be the play button was a picture of a sword.

"Handy." Natalie said.

After about five seconds of silence Nico spoke, "The Athena cabin want to see you."

"Okay." Natalie said. She left the sword arena and headed towards the Athena cabin. When she got there a girl was sitting the porch with a stack of books.

"Um, hi?" Natalie said.

"Hello, I'm Annabeth, daughter of Athena." the girl said.

"Natalie, daughter of Hermes." Natalie said.

"Okay, let's get started." Annabeth said.

Natalie took a seat next to her and Annabeth set a book on her lap.

"I can't read, I'm dyslexic." Natalie said.

"Most of us are, but these books are written in Greek." Annabeth said.

Natalie opened the book and saw that she was right. But then something strange happened the letters rearranged themselves and she could read it, perfectly fine.

"I can read it." Natalie said.

"Yep. This book talks about Heracles adventures." Annabeth said. "I am suppose to teach you about the 'stories.' They might just save your life."

When Natalie got to the third chapter in was titled "The Prince of Thieves."

"The Prince of Thieves?" Natalie asked Annabeth.

"Ah yes, Autolycus. He was the son of Hermes." Annabeth said.

"So he is my half-brother?" Natalie asked.

"Taught Heracles how to wrestling, but he stole some cattle and blamed it on him, so Heracles killed him. He is consider the best mortal thief ever." Annabeth said.

"Mortal thief?" Natalie asked

"Well we can't say he was the best thief that would be Hermes." Annabeth said.

"So if Autolycus was the prince of thieves, would that make Hermes the king of thieves?" Natalie asked.

"Yeah." Annabeth said.

"So, that would like make me the princess of thieves!" Natalie said.

"I guess." Annabeth said .

A conch horn blew in the distance.

"That would be lunch. Go catch up with your cabin." Annabeth said.


	5. Chapter 5 The Dream

Chapter 5: The Dream

The rest of Natalie's was spent doing various activities, when it was time for bed Natalie found out that her curtain turned to cover her bunk so she could get some more privacy from her half-brothers. But when she feel asleep she had a dream, and it was weird.

Natalie was in the Empire State Building lobby, she only knew that because she went there on a school field trip once. Then she noticed someone in the lobby, she couldn't tell if the range of the age or even if the person was a boy, or girl. But the person was wearing black sweat pants, and a black hoodie, the hood up and pulled tight. He went into the elevator and she followed the weird person. The person didn't seem to notice her.

The person pushed a hidden button that read 600. The elevator shot upward. When the doors opened so did Natalie's mouth, it was amazing. It looked like a whole Greek city, the top was a whole bunch of temples that seemed to be built into the top of the decapitated mountain. Mt. Olympus? It's above New York? Then Natalie noticed that she realized she was right, below was New York City, from the height of an airplane.

Then Natalie noticed that the person was walking towards the top of the mountain. She quickly caught up to the person and he walked into a giant throne room. in each throne, there were about twenty, there was a person, or rather a giant, because they were all about twenty feet tall. They all seemed very different, than Natalie figured something out, if this is Mt. Olympus, these people must be the gods! She wondered which one was Hermes. She saw one the gods who looked like a UPS delivery guy. He had salt and pepper hair, and he was holding a caduceus. Natalie also felt a sort of familiar aura from him. That is Hermes.

Then Natalie remembered what was going on, she saw the person approaching the gods throne. The gods did not seem to notice either Natalie or the strange person. The person had a huge duffel back. He went up to each of the thrones and took off the item that was set there. The items of power! There was Zeus' master bolt, Poseidon's trident, and Hades' Helm of Darkness. Even Hermes' caduceus! After they were all in the bag he turned and walked out of the room back to the elevator. Natalie followed the person but once he reached the elevator the person disappeared. She heard the gods start to argue. They must have found out that the items were missing.

Natalie woke up and it was morning. She quickly changed into clothes, her brothers were still sleeping so she let them be. She ran to the Big House hoping to talk to Chiron. She walked in and saw Chiron standing there.

"Chiron I need to talk to you." Natalie said.

"What is it?" Chiron asked.

Natalie explained the dream se just had. Chiron just stood there nodding.

"Well, that is strange. Percy just told me about his dream, and they are the same." Chiron said. That is when Natalie noticed that Percy was sitting there on the couch.

"Chiron, what if they blame me again?" Percy asked.

"Again?" Natalie asked.

"When I was twelve, even before I realized I was a demigod, I was accused of stealing Zeus' master bolt and Hades' helm of darkness." Percy said.

"They won't blame you Percy, Zeus will never make the same mistake a second time." Chiron said.

"But this time it is all the items of power." Percy said.

"Well we could…" Chiron started but stopped in the middle of his sentence.

"What?" Natalie asked.

"A quest?" Percy asked.

"Yes." Chiron said.

"But, whose quest is it, we both had the dream?" Percy asked.

"I believe we should send Natalie to speak with Rachel, she might be wise and take you Percy." Chiron said.

"Okay, I'll show where Rachel is." Percy said.

Percy got up and motioned for Natalie to her to follow her. Natalie got up and followed him. They walked up to a ridge and came to a cave.

"So is Rachel, an oracle or something?" Natalie asked.

"Yeah. If you need to go on the quest Rachel will give you a prophecy." Percy said. "Go on in."

Natalie walked in and saw a girl sitting in the middle of the cave. She had red hair and green eyes.

"Hey, I haven't see you before, I'm Rachel, the oracle." the girl said.

"I'm Natalie, um do I need to go on a quest?" Natalie asked.

Rachel seemed to be thinking about something, like a tough math equation. When she opened her eyes they were glow a bright green. Glowing green mist came out of her mouth Rachel spoke in a slivering voice, like how a snake would talk. "_Three shall go west, so pick the best. Four shall return, one full of concern. A king, a prince, and a princess, shall face a tough test. In a place lost in time, you shall buy the forth with a dime. Four shall go south, to the water's mouth. Defeat the fallen, and receive the stolen._" After that Rachel fell over like she fainted.

Natalie was unsure of what to do. Should she leave, or should she wait for her to wake up. So she just decided to leave, unsure what Rachel just said.

When Natalie exited the cave Percy was there waiting for her, dawn was just breaking at this point.

"So?" Percy asked.

"She gave me a prophecy, I think." Natalie said.

"What did it say?" Percy asked.

"A lot of stuff, should we talk it over with Chiron?" Natalie asked.

"Yeah, we probably should." Percy said.

They walked back to camp, there were very few people up, Natalie remembered they were the Apollo cabin because they led the sing-a-long last night after capture the flag. Figures the children of the sun god would be up at dawn. When they reached the Big House they found Chiron waiting on the porch for them.

"Ah, Natalie, did you receive a prophecy?" Chiron asked.

"Yeah, do you want me to say it?" Natalie asked.

"Yep, go ahead." Chiron said.

"Okay here it goes, 'Three shall go west, so pick the best. Four shall return, one full of concern. A king, a prince, and a princess, shall face a tough test. In a place lost in time, you shall buy the forth with a dime. Four shall go south, to the water's mouth. Defeat the fallen, and receive the stolen.' Do you have any idea what it means?" Natalie asked.

"Well obviously we start with three campers. You need to be one of them. They will head west. That is the start anyway." Percy said.

"Let's look at the list, a king, a prince, and a princess. What could that mean?" Chiron asked.

"Well I was joking with Annabeth yesterday. She told me about how this son of Hermes was the prince of thieves, so if he was my brother would that make me a princess. So I think the princess means me." Natalie said.

"Hum. Oh! Nico di' Angelo is the ghost king. He must be the king!" Percy said.

"That's two down, but we still need the prince." Chiron said.

"Hey Percy, since you are Poseidon's only demigod child, doesn't that like make you the sea prince?" Natalie suggested.

"I guess." Percy said.

"Percy go get Nico, since this obviously involves him now." Chiron said.

"Okay." Percy said, and ran off to get Nico.

Natalie's head was swarmed with thoughts, one of them being, "Nico is coming! Yes!"

Percy arrived carrying a very tired and angry looking Nico over his shoulders he plopped him down in a chair.

"Why do you need to see me at this unearthly hour?" Nico asked.

"You seem to be part of a prophecy and need to go on a quest." Chiron said.

"What is the prophecy?" Nico asked.

"Do I need to say it again?" Natalie asked.

Chiron nodded.

"Fine. 'Three shall go west, so pick the best. Four shall return, one full of concern. A king, a prince, and a princess, shall face a tough test. In a place lost in time, you shall buy the forth with a dime. Four shall go south, to the water's mouth. Defeat the fallen, and receive the stolen.' That is it. You have any idea what it means?" Natalie asked.

"I am afraid I know a small piece." Nico said, grimacing.

"What?" Natalie asked

"A place lost in time. And in the west." Nico said. Then he looked at Percy. Percy seemed to get it now, Nico's eyes were full of sadness, "Percy I don't want to go there again."

"I know you don't, I am not too happy with it either. But if the prophecy says it, we have to go." Percy said.

"Where?" Natalie asked.

"The Lotus Hotel and Casino in Los Vegas. It is a seemingly awesome hotel with bunch of games and everything seems perfect." Percy said.

"Seemingly?" Natalie asked confused.

"It's a trap." Nico said.

"Now whose quoting Star Wars?" Natalie asked.

Nico just stared at her. "It makes you never want to leave, and most of the time you don't."

"I was in there for what seemed like a few hours, but it was five days." Percy said.

"I thought it was about two months or so, but I was in there for almost seventy years." Nico said.

"You lived during World War Two?" Natalie asked.

"Yeah, but let's leave that subject. Let's get back to the prophecy." Nico said.

"Okay well we three, you, Percy and I are the king, prince, and princess." Natalie said.

"We know that we need to go to Los Vegas first. Pick someone up in the hotel. Then head south." Percy said.

"But where?" Nico asked.

"The water's mouth. For some reason I have a feeling that it means the Gulf of Mexico, we are going to Mexico!" Natalie said.

"Okay we need to prepare for the quest. Get the supplies you will need, get some breakfast and then meet up at the top of the hill afterward." Percy said.

"Okay," Nico and Natalie said at the same time.

Natalie was unsure what to pack. She just got the duffel bag that her clothes appeared in. She put one extra pair of clothes in the bag. She put her MP3 sword in her back pocket; she hoped she wouldn't lose it. She found her brothers stash of coke and Oreo's and put those in as well. When she went to breakfast she sacrificed an offering to her father Hermes, praying for safe journeys, after all Hermes was the god of travel along with thieves and tons of other stuff.

After breakfast Natalie was told to go to the camp store. They gave her $100 mortal cash and about 20 golden drachmas. So they would maybe good to buy some tickets and in case we needed any godly help. Natalie met up with Nico and Percy at the top of the hill, like planned. Apparently they got the same amount of cash and drachmas to.

"So how are getting west?" Natalie asked.

"I can drive." Percy said.

"Do we have a car?" Natalie asked.

"The camp is loaning us the van." Nico said.

"Oh, so pile in?" Natalie asked.

"Yep." Percy said.

They walked down the hill to the van. Percy climbed in the driver seat and Nico climbed in shotgun. So Natalie just climbed into the middle. The drove out of the country and into the city. With bad traffic I was about two hours before the got out and into the country side of New Jersey.

Nico apparently forgot to go to the bathroom before we left camp because while we were in the middle of nowhere he complained that he had to use the bathroom.

"Why didn't go before we left!" Percy said.

Of course Natalie could tell what was coming next. "I didn't have to go then." Nico claimed.

"Uhg!" Percy said.

We drove by a small shop. It seemed to sell garden ordainments such as stone statues.

"Why don't we stop there?" Nico asked.

"Um, no we don't want to go in there. She hates me." Percy said.

"What?" Natalie asked.

"That is Aunty Em's Garden Gnome Emporium. The layer of Medusa. I killed her a few years ago, on my first quest. If she is reforms, she will hate me." Percy said. "Even more since I sort of defeated her son."

"Her son?" Natalie asked.

"Chrysaor. He appeared on my journey towards Rome, shortly after we entered the Mediterranean. I didn't really kill him, but I tossed him overboard and sort of sacrificed his ship to Dionysus." Percy said.

"Percy I would love to hear more stories, but I seriously need to use the restroom." Nico said.

"Then why don't you shadow travel somewhere and go!" Percy said.

"Then pull over so I know where you are when I try to come back!" Nico said.

Since Percy was driving so fast, at this point they were about a mile away from the lair of Medusa. So he pulled over and Nico climbed out and disappeared into the shadows.

Natalie pulled out three cans of coke and handed one up to Percy.

"Where did you get these?" Percy asked opening the can.

"I found my brother's stash." Natalie said with a smirk.

She put one in Nico's cup holder, and popped a can herself and put it in her cup holder.

"I got Oreos to!" Natalie said.

"What kind?" Percy asked.

"Double stuffed." Natalie said.

"This is probably the easiest quest I have ever been on, so far anyways." Percy said.

"Why?" Natalie asked.

"Usually at this point I would have been attacked by now." Percy said.

"Well maybe since we have a son of Hades with us, monsters won't attack." Natalie said.

"Yeah, hopefully." Percy said.

Nico all of the sudden appeared in his seat. "Ready to go."

"About time." Percy said jokily.

"Let's just get going." Natalie said.

Natalie passed Nico and Percy a few Oreos and ate a few herself. Natalie was tired because she did not get much sleep last night so she fell asleep hoping not to be plagued by dreams.


	6. Chapter 6 The Attack

Chapter 6: The Attack

Natalie woke up quite surprised. That is to say, the van was flipping over. They were high above the ground, upside down when she came to. The van did a couple more turns before landing, thankfully on the wheels.

"What happened!" Natalie yelled.

Percy looked out the window and said something that should not be repeated.

Nico looked out and yelled, "Get out!"

Neither Natalie or Percy argued they grabbed their stuff a got out. When Natalie saw what was outside, she might of cursed too. It was a monster. It seemed to have the head of a lion, the body of a goat, a blood-caked mane, and a ten-foot-long diamondback snake-headed for a tail.

"Not again!" Percy said.

"Percy what is that thing?" Natalie said.

"The chimera. I fought one, unsuccessfully on my first quest." Percy said.

"Any tips?" Nico asked.

"It breathes fire, and watch out for that snake it has for a tail. Highly poisonous." Percy said.

"Good to know." Natalie said. Just then the chimera lunged. It tried to bite Percy with his lion head while trying to bite Nico with the snake tail at the same time. They both managed to dodge. They all pulled out our swords.

The chimera seemed to notice Natalie. Natalie didn't know what to do. She saw its mouth glowing, and a red hot flame blew out of the lion's mouth. Natalie managed to dodge at the last second.

"Percy how do we beat this thing?" Natalie asked.

"I don't know! It nearly killed me the first time!" Percy yelled.

Nico was standing sort of in front of it. Natalie saw it lunge at him. Natalie had no idea what she was doing but next thing she knew, she was rushing towards Nico and pushed him out of the way. Then excruciating pain as the lions jaws clamped down on her. The one good thing her sword went in its mouth. Apparently the mouth of a chimera is really tender; because one simple cut from the sword in its mouth and it designated into sand and ashes. But not before it gave Natalie several deep almost stab-like wounds. One had a broken off tooth still in it.

Percy and Nico ran over to her. Natalie could barely make out anything. Percy grabbed his nectar and poured some on each of the wounds. Nico pulled the tooth out of the one wound. He pulled Natalie into a sitting position leaning against his body. She immediately felt safer.

Percy dressed the wounds and Nico got some ambrosia and put it in Natalie's mouth. She felt a bit better, the ambrosia tasted so good, like a melting marshmallow she just put in the microwave. Natalie did the several times at school, sometimes it made a mess and she got into trouble but most of the times it made a really good snack. Natalie fell asleep without noticing.

When Natalie came to she noticed she was lying of a sleeping bag a few hundred feet from the sight of the accident. She tried to get up but her torso exploded with pain. She couldn't help but moan.

"The zombie lives!" Nico said.

"Ha, ha, death breath." Percy said.

"What happened?" Natalie asked.

"You saved my life." Nico said.

Natalie noticed she wasn't wearing the same T-shirt.

"This is what I was wearing." Natalie said.

"We had to dress the wounds, and the T-shirt got in the way, it was full of holes and covered in blood anyways." Percy said.

"Oh my gods! You took off my shirt!" Natalie yelled.

Nico's face turned bright red, which you could easily see because he was so pale. "Um,"

"We didn't see anything we left your undergarment exactly the same." Percy said.

Nico was still redder than a tomato.

"How did I get over here?" Natalie asked.

"I carried you." Nico said.

"So are stopping here for the night?" Natalie asked.

"Well, the van kind of got destroyed." Percy said.

"What! How?" Natalie asked.

"Well, that blast of fire kind of made it catch on fire." Nico said.

"So we are stuck out here in…" Natalie started, then she realized, she didn't know where they were.

"We crossed over into Pennsylvania a few miles back." Percy said.

"Well since you two probably can't fly in an airplane, how are we gonna get to Vegas?" Natalie asked.

"Nico could you shadow travel us there?" Percy asked.

"Percy, if I could, I would've shadow traveled us straight from camp. Unless you want me passed out for two days no I can't. It is a lot of work taking other people with me." Nico said.

"Okay. Natalie your father is god of travel, could you do something?" Percy asked.

"Percy, I just found out I was a demigod three days ago! I doubt I have any useful skills." Natalie said.

"You stole the flag with out detection." Percy said.

"A lot of help that would be. What am I supposed to do? Steal a few train tickets west?" Natalie asked.

"We could hitch-hike." Nico said.

"All the way from Pennsylvania to Nevada?" Percy asked.

"I guess that is a problem." Nico said.

At this point Natalie sat up, and noticed a tooth next to her. "Is this the tooth that was embedded in my skin?" Natalie asked.

"Yeah. It is a spoil of war, you get to keep it." Percy said.

"What am I supposed to do with it?" Natalie asked.

"You could thread it though a string and where it as a necklace." Nico said.

"Yeah, do either of you boys have the stuff I need for that?" Natalie asked.

Nico pulled out some string and a needle. Percy pulled out a pocket knife, with a tool he drilled a small hole through the tooth. Nico then threaded the needle through the hole. Soon enough she had a necklace with the chimera tooth hanging on it.

"Okay, back to planning. Do we still have enough cash to buy some train tickets? We might be able to hitch-hike into Philly. There should be a train stain there right." Natalie said.

"Yeah let's do that." Nico said.

"We should get some sleep. I'll take first watch. You two get some rest." Percy said.

Nico laid down and fell asleep, and Natalie did similar. But soon after she was plagued with a dream.

She couldn't tell where she was it was very hot and dry, but she smelt a sea breeze. "Maybe I am next to the Gulf?" Natalie asked herself.

Out of the sand next to her it seemed like something exploded.

"Help me over throw your puny gods." the voice said. It sounded evil and like a snake. Natalie couldn't see what spoke.

When the sand and smoke cleared Natalie could see what had spoke, it was a giant, red, snake. Natalie hated snakes!

"Help me. Bring me the items." the snake said.

All Natalie could manage was, "No."

"Then you will suffer!" the snake said. He dived down at her and swallowed her.

Natalie woke up screaming. Nico, who was now on watch ran over to her.

"Natalie, what's wrong?" Nico asked.

Percy was still asleep.

Natalie couldn't speak, she was so scared of what she just saw.

"Hey, it was just a nightmare." Nico said.

Natalie was sleeping near a tree. Nico gave a slight smile, and sat down with his back against the trunk.

"Come over here." Nico said.

He spread out his legs, inviting her to sleep against him.

Natalie went over leaned up against him, rest her head on his chest. He wrapped his arms around her.

Natalie finally found her voice, "You won't try anything will you?"

Nico gave a slight laugh, "No, not at all. Now sleep."

Natalie fell asleep almost instantly. It was so warm wrapped in Nico's arms, and she felt to safe. She didn't have any nightmares. She woke up in the morning exactly like she fell asleep. Nico was still on watch, and thankfully Percy was still asleep, so he wouldn't question what in the world they were doing. Natalie put a hand on Nico's and he released his hold on her. She got up and turned and helped Nico up.

"So what had you so spooked last night?" Nico asked.

"It was just a nightmare, like you said." Natalie said.


	7. Chapter 7 The Visiter

Chapter 7: The Visitor

Percy woke up five minutes later. We tried to make breakfast, which was tough because none of them had much in the way of food other than the Oreo's and Coke Natalie had.

Just when they were about to give up, a bunch of breakfast food appeared in front of them. There were eggs, bacon, pancakes and juice.

"What?" Natalie asked.

Percy just stared at it.

"Is this one of your guys doing?" Natalie asked.

"No, not mine." Nico said.

Percy was still drooling over the food.

"Of course not, it is my doing." a voice said.

Natalie turned to see who spoke. It was a woman, maybe about twenty-five. She looked like a punk rocker. With knee high black, very short black jean shorts. A black 'Green Day' T-shirt, with a torn leather jacket that the sleeves only went down to the elbows. Her hair was black and spiky with blue tips. Her eyes were the weirdest, they were a deep purple. Natalie had no doubt in her mind, this was a goddess.

"Um, thank you." Natalie said.

"Not to sound rude, but who are you?" Nico said.

"Eris." she said.

Percy got over his shock of the food and turned to look at our visitor. "The goddess of discord?"

"Your brain is definitely full of seaweed, Percy." Nico said.

"Um, Lady Eris, why do we have the honor of your visit?" Natalie asked. She figured when it comes to gods and goddesses, don't tick them off, and slather on the butt-kissing.

"I like you." Eris said. "You know how to treat a goddess."

"You still didn't answer the question." Nico said. Natalie was scared that Eris will hurt Nico in some way, would she kill him? Or just blast him into dust? Or possibly turn her into an animal of some kind. She remembered stories that Artemis turned boys into animals.

"You got spunk." Eris told Nico.

"Thanks for the food Eris. Do you have a message to tell us?" Percy asked.

"Nah, just figured you could use some help." Eris said.

"Thanks." Nico said.

"No problem, cousins." Eris said. Natalie remembered that Eris was a daughter of Zeus and Hera, so Percy and Nico were her cousins.

"How are the gods doing without their items?" Percy asked.

"Well Zeus wants to blame you." Eris said pointing at Natalie.

"Me?" Natalie asked.

"Well a son of Hermes stole the master bolt and helm of darkness last time." Eris said.

"But why would I steal my own father's caduceus? That is just ludicrous!" Natalie said.

"That is what Athena told him. Hermes is worried sick and behind seclude." Eris said.

"Huh?" Natalie asked.

"Hermes needs his caduceus to help him make his deliveries." Percy said.

"He is also worried sick about them." Eris said.

"Them, the snakes on the caduceus? They are alive?" Natalie asked in shock.

"George and Martha, I hope they are okay." Percy said.

"Do you perhaps have transportation for us?" Nico asked.

"What do I look like a taxi driver?" Eris asked, she transformed her clothes to look like a typical New York taxi driver. Natalie hoped that Nico would not say something stupid, but of course, he did.

"Yes." Nico said.

Eris transformed back and her purple eyes glowed more brightly.

"We are done here." Eris said and she vanished into different color smoke.

The smoke covered everyone eyes so they couldn't see a thing.

"Nico you had to upset the goddess!" Percy yelled.

"Quack!"

Was that a duck? When the smoke cleared, Nico was no where to be seen.

"Oh gods! Did Eris kill Nico?" Natalie asked.

"I don't think she would do that unless she really wanted to upset Hades." Percy said.

"Quack, quack!"

There it was again. Where Nico had been standing a minute before now stood, a black duck.

Natalie's eyes widen liked crazy.

"Nico?" Natalie asked.

"Quack." The duck said, it seemed to nod. It walked, or was it waddled? Over to where Natalie was standing.

Natalie picked up the duck.

Percy started laughing. Natalie wanted to slap him, but she was holding Nico the duck.

Turns out Natalie didn't have too. Percy was right behind her, Nico the duck, turned looked at Percy and bit him on the nose.

Natalie laughed, Nico made a weird quaking noise which Natalie assumed was his way of laughing now.

"Okay what are we going to do? I doubt a train line won't be to happy about transporting live water foul." Natalie said.

"Maybe we can convince them it is like a convention or competition." Percy said.

"Where?" Natalie asked.

"As far as we can get." Percy said.

Natalie set Nico on the ground and she and Percy grabbed the bags. Percy was now carrying Nico's bag also.

They walked to the road, Nico waddling behind them until they reached the road.

They walked along the road until a blue pick-up truck drove by. Percy flagged him down and the guy pulled over.

He was tall, buff, and had shaggy red hair and a scruffy beard.

"Please sir, are car broke down, a few miles back. Can you please give us a lift to Philadelphia?" Percy asked.

"Who?" the man asked.

"Me, my er, cousin, and her pet duck." Percy said.

"Why does she have a pet duck?" the man asked.

"She lives out in the country, ducks actually make real good pets." Percy said. This earned Percy a nibble on his calf by Nico.

"I can fit only one other in the truck, the girl and her duck can ride in the bed I guess." the man said.

"Thank you Mister…" Natalie said.

"Carson." the man filled in.

Riding in a pick-up bed was rather exciting. It was like riding a roller costar, an old wooden one that was real bumpy. But Natalie had to hold on to Nico the whole time. She could tell he was nervous, she didn't know how, she could just tell. Maybe it was just the fact of being turned into a duck a mere hour ago. Natalie also had to make sure the bags didn't go flying out of the bed.

It was a good forty-five minute drive before they reached Philadelphia. Percy had Mr. Carson drop them off at the train station.

Right before they entered Percy said, "They might not like the idea of a free ranged bird in there. Do you have a leash or something?"

Natalie checked the bags and found a rope about five feet long. She put loose loop around Nico's neck. "How is that?" Natalie asked.

"Quack." Nico said.

Natalie looked at Percy.

"What?" Percy asked.

"Can't you understand him? He is a water foul currently." Natalie said.

"Nope. If he was a horse or fish, that would be different." Percy said.

"Hopeless." Natalie said.

They walked into the train station with Nico walking right beside Natalie on the make shift leash. They got some stares from a few people but no one seemed to care. Natalie pulled out $150 out of the bags and handed it to Percy. He walked up to the ticket counter.

"May I help you?" the lady at the desk asked.

"I need three tickets to Los Vegas." Percy said.

"We don't service that far. We can get you to Denver." the lady said.

"Good enough. I need a ticket for myself, my cousin, and her duck." Percy said.

"Her duck?" the lady questioned.

Natalie picked Nico up and walked up to the counter.

"I'm sorry no animals aloud on the train." the lady said.

Natalie thought up and idea. She was in a few school plays, and a few times when a kid severally messed up a line during performance, she was good at improvising.

Natalie put on the saddest look she could muster. "Percy what are we going to do?"

Percy had no clue what was going on, he did the safe thing, "It's going to be alright."

"No it's not! I need to get out to Los Vegas, Percy! I want my daddy!" Natalie cried.

"Shh, it's okay." Percy said, catching on.

"No it's never going to be okay again. My mom is dead and now I have to travel half-way cross the country to live with my dad I have never met!" Natalie said, crying. She broke into a sob. "And all I have left my mom and my old life is Nico! And she said he can't be on the train with me!"

"Nico is the name of the duck." Percy explained to the ticket lady.

"Okay, we will provide a animal carrying cage. The duck stays in it. You can have it with you, or with all the other baggage. Just stop crying. You are making a scene." the lady gave in.

"Thank you." Natalie said, tears in her eyes.

Percy handed her the money and in change got the tickets. Natalie put Nico down and held the leash close to her body.

As we walked back over to the benches where we would wait for our train Percy pondered something, "How did you do that so good and right on the spot?"

"Four years of theater babe, two of which were improv." Natalie said, wiping her fake tears from her eyes.

"Handy." Percy said. Percy went off to find a dog carrier to put Nico in.

While he was gone a man came up behind them.

"Where are you going with a duck young lady?" the man asked, he had a deep French accent.

"I don't know you so I don't have to answer to you." Natalie replied not even looking at the man.

The man grabbed Natalie by the shoulders, lifting her up, and forcing her to look directly into his eyes. His eyes were two different colors, blue and brown. He looked like the kind of person who lead a military school, and yes Natalie knew that because she attended one before. Nico quacked in surprise like he recognized him.

"Chaos wants your help. And you must do his bidding." The man said.

Luckily Percy came back. "Dr. Thorn!"

"Perseus Jackson!" Dr. Thorn said. His French accent muddled the 'j' in Percy's last name.

"How many times do I have to kill these guys!" Percy said.

Natalie noticed something fly from behind Dr. Thorn, it was like a spike, aimed at Percy. He dodged it easily.

"I have gotten much better since I last saw you Thorn. Don't under-estimate me." Percy said.

Dr. Thorn tossed Natalie down on the ground and began to transform. It was the body of a lion, with a scorpion's tail sticking out behind him. The face was still strangely the same. Natalie couldn't remember the name of this monster, but she didn't waster any time, she got out her sword, and got up to fight it.

Dr. Thorn threw spikes at her. One grazed her arm. It burned, it most have some kind of poison.

"Crazy knife throwing murder!" Natalie heard some random woman off to her right scream. That sent every one else into a panic.

Mortals must not see monsters the same way demigods do.

Natalie went after the monster with her sword, and she had an idea. Dr. Thorn would be expecting her to slash his front. And he was prepared to grab her there. But at the last second she slid into a baseball slide. Dragging her sword along the monster's underbelly he exploded into dust.

Percy ran over to her.

"That was amazing Natalie." Percy said.

"Thanks." Natalie said, putting her sword away. She then clenched her arm where Dr. Thorn's spike grazed her. It was on fire with pain.

"Here, eat this." Percy said. Handing her a small piece of ambrosia.

"Thanks again." Natalie said.

"Hey those two kids saved us!" the same woman said.

"This is strange, usually mortals think we are the terrorist. That is a nice change of pace" Percy said.

"Hey kid, how did you defeat that knife thrower, with a baseball bat?" some man asked.

"Um, I hit him where it hurts, then repeated blows to the head." Natalie said, it was pretty much the closest she could say with out sending them into a panic.

Luckily Natalie and Percy's train pulled into the station, "Well that's our train." Percy said.

Natalie quickly convinced Nico to get into the dog carrier and grabbed her bags, also carrying Nico's cage. She tried to hurry, but didn't want to hurt Nico.

Percy and Natalie ran onto the AM Track. And took their seats. There were three seats per room, Natalie sat on the window seat, Percy sat on the isle seat, so Percy sat Nico's cage in the middle seat.

"How is you arm?" Percy asked once they got on the way.

"Good." Natalie said.

"Natalie, you are amazing, you have single handily defeated two monsters that I couldn't beat when they attacked me." Percy said.

"But the Chimera nearly killed me." Natalie said.

"You were a true hero, saving Nico by basically jumping into the jaws of that thing." Percy said.

"What was that monster just now?" Natalie asked.

"The manticore." Percy said.

Natalie turned to look out the window as we were underway.

"Well this is serious déjà vu" Percy said.

Natalie figured not to ask about it. She though about what to do about Nico being a duck. How was she going to turn him back to normal.


	8. Chapter 8 A Strange Meeting

**For those who have been following sorry about not updating in a while, I have been busy reading and working at my church garage sale.**

Chapter 8 A Strange Meeting

Natalie, Percy and Nico, still a duck, were on the train for what seemed like forever, but it was eight hours. But for two ADHD kids stuck on a train, and an ADHD duck stuck in a duck carrier, it felt like it had to be days. They arrived in Chicago at about four in the afternoon. They had a small lunch in the dining car, and Natalie made sure Nico got some bread, sure it was almost stale, so the chef just gave it to her, but seemingly to a duck bread is bread, stale or otherwise.

When we pulled into the station there a way to perky woman came of the PA system and said, "Due to small engine problems there will be a four hour lay-over. The train heading towards Denver will leave again at eight in the evening,"

"What do we do?" Natalie asked.

"Perhaps head towards Lake Michigan. I am sure Nico wants a chance to waddle around and possibly swim. And I always feel better at a water source." Percy said.

Nico quacked, probably in agreement. Because even though they were stuck on a train, Percy and Natalie could at least walk around the train and go into different cars. But poor Nico was stuck in a two by one by one and a half-foot cage.

"Yeah, and we might need to change that paper in there." Natalie said.

Nico seemed to be embarrassed. So Natalie picked up the cage and Percy grabbed the bags. They left the train station and caught a cab.

"Where are you heading?" asked the taxi driver. He seemed young, which Natalie wondered why a guy, maybe twenty, was a taxi driver. He was like a typical California guy, tan, sandy blonde and in the rearview mirror showed his sparkling blue eyes.

"Lake Michigan." Percy said.

The driver drove us there in silence. When we got there he cleared his thought and said, "I shall leave you with, of course in haiku."

Natalie raised an eyebrow.

"So brave of you guys,

You shall be well known heroes.

You guys are so awesome!"

Natalie raised another eyebrow, she was no poetry expert, but she was pretty sure the last line was supposed to have five syllables but this one had six.

"Hey, Apollo. What brings you to Chicago?" Percy asked.

"Apollo?" Natalie asked Percy.

"How did you know it was me?" Apollo asked. "Was it my amazing good looks?"

"Sorry to say, but your poor poetry skills." Percy said.

"What do you mean?" Apollo asked.

"That last line had six syllables." Percy said.

"Did it? Maybe I should go back to limericks." Apollo said to himself.

"Um, lord Apollo." Natalie asked.

"Yeah?" Apollo asked.

"Why are you here to see us?" Natalie asked.

"Oh a warning. This part wasn't in your prophecy, but beware of fake friends." Apollo said.

"Can you change Nico back from being a duck?" Percy asked.

"Oh Eris turned Hades' kid into a duck. Funny!" Apollo said.

"Yeah, real amusing." Natalie said sarcastically. "Now can you change him or not?"

"There once was a duck,

who was certainly out of luck.

Only one can change,

but her you must page,

she can make your life suck." Apollo said in limerick form. At least it was a proper limerick, even if it was of now help what so ever.

"Yeah, thanks for the ride Apollo." Percy said, he then opened the doors and Natalie followed him out carrying the duck cage.

They walked down to the shore, and Natalie let Nico out of the cage. She pulled out the newspaper that was in there and found a newspaper stand and got some more. After laying it down she looked to see what was going on. Natalie could see the Sears Tower off in the distance. Percy had his feet in the water, and seemed much younger, or more like the stress was gone, like the water rejuvenated him. Nico was swimming about twenty feet off shore.

Natalie went over to where Percy was standing in about a foot of water. Then he had a strange face, like he sucked on a lemon-head.

"What is wrong?" Natalie asked.

"The water seems agitated. Like there is something here that shouldn't. The naiads usually come to see me in rivers, streams, ponds, and lakes. But none have shown up." Percy said.

"That is kind of strange." Natalie said.

Just then a giant red tentacle shot out of the water and grabbed Nico the duck and dragged him under the water.

"Styx! What was that!" Percy shouted. Both Natalie and Percy drew their swords.

"How am I supposed to know?" Natalie asked.

Another tentacle shot out and tried to grab Percy, but Percy dodged and sliced at it. His sword managed to give a decent size cut to the tentacle. The tentacle retreated.

"I think I know what it is!" Natalie said. It was something Natalie thought belonged to Norse mythology, but she guessed it could still show up. She only recognized it because of a movie, "Pirates of the Caribbean, Dead Man's Chest."

"What is it?" Percy asked.

"It's the-" Natalie never got the chance to finish her sentence. Because just then the tentacle grabbed Natalie around the waist, binding her arms to her sides and picked her up and dragged her down into the lake.

The monster brought Natalie close to its face and she saw she was right, it was the kracken! Natalie saw Nico trying to escape the clutches of the tentacle but as a duck, it was useless. Natalie only hoped that now that he was a duck, he could be under water for a long time. Natalie also noticed another figure that the kracken had caught, but she couldn't make the figure out.

Natalie managed to free her sword arm somehow and she sliced off the tentacle that was holding her. Once the hold was released she swam up and got a lung full of air. Then she dove back down and cut Nico free. Once he was free he half-swam, half-flew over to shore. Natalie noticed that Percy was still on shore. She took another breath and swam towards the tentacle that held the mysterious person in its grip. Once Natalie got the person free of its grip, she noticed the figure was un-conscience. She swam the figure over to shore and set him up there, now noticing it was a guy, with quite long hair.

Natalie was then struck with an idea, she noticed the kracken always brought its catch down to its face. So Natalie stuck her arms above her head, wait for it to grab her. Once it did she took a big lung full of air and as the monster brought her down to its face she stabbed it in the eye. The kracken released her in pain and she stabbed it even deeper into the body. The monster exploded into wet sand.

Natalie swam to the surface. Percy was now standing by the mysterious man. Nico was also over there, and he seemed to be okay. Natalie swam over and started notice small details about the man. He was not a man but a boy, maybe sixteen. His wet hair was most likely blonde, but it was hard to tell when it was wet. Natalie noticed a small tattoo on his fore arm. She recognized it out of a movie, the movie "Thor", it was the symbol on Thor's hammer, that Natalie could not remember the name of. She turned to Percy who was now performing CPR on the boy.

The boy opened his bright blue eyes, and he seemed panicked, he then seemed to release electricity, electrocuting Percy. Percy seemed to recover quickly.

"Whoa dude, what's up?" Percy asked.

"Where is the kracken?" the boy asked.

"Gone now, I took care of it." Natalie asked.

"What's your name?" Percy asked.

"Randy. Who are you?" the boy said.

"Well we are your rescuers. Natalie here got you away from the kracken, and brought you back to shore, and then I preformed CPR. My name is Percy by the way." Percy said.

"So what brings you to lake Michigan?" Natalie asked.

"My dad sent me on a mission." Randy said.

"So who is your dad? Zeus?" Percy asked.

"No, Thor. What are you talking about?" Randy asked Percy like he was crazy.

Percy turned to Natalie and asked, "Who is Thor?"

"He is a Norse god, god of thunder." Natalie said.

"Norse?" Percy asked.

"Vikings." Natalie said.

"Yeah. So who are your parents, you two are also demigods?" Randy asked.

"My father is Poseidon." Percy said.

"My dad is Hermes." Natalie said.

"Greek gods?" Randy asked. Natalie nodded.

"Well if the Norse gods are still around I guess the Greek ones could still be around too." Randy said. "Well I have to go find my father's hammer. See ya."

Randy ran off down the shore.

"Well that was strange." Percy said.

"No stranger than Nico being a duck." Natalie noted.

"Good point." Percy said. "Well now that the kracken is taken care of, I guess we can enjoy ourselves here."

They spent the rest of the day at the beach until about six. They got some deep dish pizza for supper.

Natalie spent a while trying to figure out Apollo's limerick. Who could get Nico out of duck form?

**In case you are wondering I heard that after the Heroes of Olympus, Rick was planning on writing a Norse mythology series or book. **


	9. Chapter 9 Being Searched For

Chapter 9: Being Searched For

Since Percy and Natalie didn't get beds in the sleeper car, they had to sleep in their seats. The train was scheduled to arrive in St. Louis at like three in the morning but that didn't matter. Natalie tried to sleep but she kept having the same dream, at the beach, with the giant snake, that always ended up swallowing her. She finally woke up at about seven in the morning. Percy was up to.

"Who wants you help?" Percy asked.

"Huh?" Natalie asked back.

"You talk in your sleep. You were saying something about refusing to help." Percy explained.

"Oh." Natalie said. She didn't know what to say.

"Natalie, I just want to know, on my first quest, the Titan lord tried to get me to help, it could've been helpful to others if they would've known that he was ready to rise before he actually did." Percy said.

"I don't know who it is. It is a giant red snake." Natalie said with a shudder.

"A snake?" Percy asked. "Why is that so scary?"

"I hate snakes." Natalie said.

"Your dad has two pet snakes on his caduceus." Percy said.

"Doesn't mean I have to like them." Natalie countered.

"Quack!" Nico quacked.

"What is it Nico?" Percy asked. Natalie could tell Percy was starting to get annoyed with Nico being a duck.

"Maybe he is hungry." Natalie said.

Nico quacked once, signaling yes.

"What is the next stop?" Natalie asked.

"We will arrive in Topeka at 10 o'clock, we have an hour layover there. Then arrive at Denver at 5 in the afternoon." Percy said.

"So do we want to wait till Topeka for breakfast, or go to the dinning car now?" Natalie asked.

"What do you think Nico?" Percy asked.

"Quack, quack." Nico quacked.

"So Nico thinks we should go to the dinning car." Natalie said.

"Okay, how much cash do we have left?" Percy asked.

"One hundred dollars." Natalie said.

"That could be some what of a problem." Percy said.

"We will talk over breakfast. Nico, I'll bring you a bagel." Natalie said.

The breakfast for both of them and the bagel cost sixteen dollars so now they only had only eighty-four dollars.

When they arrived at Topeka they agreed to walk around for a bit, and that was a big mistake.

It took two minutes for a monster to find them, and to make matters worst, is was a tough monster, a Hydra.

"Percy what is with all these monsters!" Natalie screamed while fighting the Hydra. It currently had five heads, and Natalie knew better than to cut one off, thankfully so did Percy.

"Why are you asking me?" Percy screamed, dodging a spay of acid.

"You are the child of a Big Three, it is probably your fault, you probably smell like a buffet." Natalie said, dodging a gnash of teeth.

"Nico is a Big Three kid too!" Percy countered.

"He is a duck he doesn't count right now." Natalie said.

"Quack!" Nico protested from under the bench where he was hiding.

"Sorry." Natalie said, momentarily distracted the Hydra got in a lucky shot and hit Natalie's arm with acid.

Natalie screamed out in pain, but she knew she had to continue fighting.

There was a pool of acid by the hydra's foot, it was being careful not to step in it.

Natalie saw something perfect for the job she was about to do. A two by four that was sitting in front of a hard ware store. But it was sharpened to a point. She ran over grabbed it. Percy had no clue what was going on and Nico was trying his best not to look like a meal.

Natalie charged the Hydra, two by four in hand, and as she ran she dipped it in the acid pool and jabbed the monster in the side. The Hydra wiggled in pain and disintegrated into sand.

"I would never have thought of that." Percy said.

The acid seemed to kick in more and Natalie nearly collapsed in pain.

"Oh Styx!" Percy cursed. "Where is the nectar?"

"I think we ran out after the kracken." Natalie said.

"Oh, gods what are we going to do?" Percy asked.

A young woman, maybe about nineteen was running down the street. Everything she wore was Nike brand, a Nike work out shirt, Nike shorts, Nike socks and shoes.

Then something click, Nike is the goddess of victory.

"Is something wrong?" the runner asked.

"Oh, nothing, my cousin just burned herself." Percy said, think she was a regular mortal.

"Sorry to say, but that is not a burn." the 'runner' said.

"What?" Percy asked.

"You should know half-blood, that is Hydra poison." the 'runner' said.

"Lady, Nike, it would be ever so kind of you, if you could heal it." Natalie said.

Nike smiled, "How did you know it was me?" Nike asked.

"All you are wearing is your brand." Natalie said.

"Oh, I guess that gave it away." Nike said. "But then, why should I heal you?"

"Um, do you want us to be victorious on this quest?" Natalie asked.

"Of course." Nike said.

"Well I can't obtain victory with my arm nearly falling off because of the Hydra acid." Natalie convinced.

"Good point." Nike said. She put a hand on Natalie's arm and it glowed slightly. When Nike removed her hand, Natalie's arm was back to normal.

"Thank you Lady Nike." Natalie said.

"Now I must be going." Nike said.

"Wait, can't you turn Nico back to normal?" Percy asked.

At his name Nico came out from under the bench and waddled over to Natalie.

"Oh, sorry I can't do that. Although it is not _fair_ that he is a duck, you can still be victorious. I'm afraid you will have to find someone else to do that." Nike said.

"Oh, thanks any ways." Natalie said.

"I must go now, oh and you, Natalie, might need this." Nike said, handing her a Nike baseball cap.

"Thank you." Natalie said.

Nike smiled and disappeared. Natalie put the cap on.

"Why do you suppose I have to wear a hat?" Natalie asked.

Percy shrugged, then he looked at the newspaper stand next to the bench.

"Oh, this isn't good." Percy said.

"What?" Natalie asked.

"Does your mom know about camp?" Percy asked.

"No, in fact I came straight from school to camp." Natalie said. "Why?"

Percy grabbed a newspaper and showed Natalie the front article. On the front page was a picture of Natalie.

"Is this a missing person ad?" Natalie asked. Because honestly she couldn't read it.

"Yeah, so you need to be careful." Percy said.

Natalie pulled her hat down lower over her face in attempt to hide it.

The train whistle blared, "Has it been an hour already?" Natalie asked.

"I guess so, let's get back on." Percy said.

They were on the train for Zeus knows how long, well at least it felt long, especially how the cops would be looking for Natalie. But at five in the afternoon the train pulled into the train station. Percy grabbed the entire load of bags while Natalie grabbed Nico's cage. Once they were on the platform Natalie took Nico out of his cage, and slid on his improvised rope collar/leash. Natalie walked over to the pile of dog carriers and put the cage Nico used on top of the pile.

"So what now?" Natalie asked.

"Well at this point on my first quest, we sent an Iris message to camp, we could do that, see if Chiron has any ideas on what to do about Nico being a duck." Percy said.

"A what?" Natalie asked.

"Come on we need to find a do it yourself car wash. If I remember right it is this way." Percy said. He started walking down the street, Natalie had no choice but to follow him. Nico walked a little bit in front of her.

Natalie got some strange looks, of course because she was wearing a hat low over her face and walking a duck.

Soon enough Percy found the do-it-yourself car wash.

"Do you have some quarters on you, we need seventy-five cents. Natalie searched her pockets and brought out fifty cents, and a drachma. Percy inserted the fifty cents and his own quarter into the hose head, and turned it to mist. He caught the misty water in the light from the sun, and a beautiful rainbow appeared.

"Okay now the drachma," Percy said. "Iris, goddess of the rainbow, accept my offering. Show me Chiron at Camp Half-Blood." He was about to toss the drachma in when in the rainbow the form of Chiron showed up.

"That's is strange." Percy said.

"What is strange?" Chiron asked, "Are you guys alright?"

"We are fine Chiron, we are in Denver. But we have a few problems." Natalie said.

"What is it?" Chiron said.

"We are out of ambrosia and nectar, we only have sixty-four dollars left, Nico is a duck, and I am the subject of a man hunt." Natalie said

"What were those last two?" Chiron asked.

"Eris turned Nico into a duck." Percy said.

"And I am declared a missing child, there are ads in newspapers and possibly news-stories." Natalie said.

"There is nothing I can do about that last one but Nico being a duck, do you have any clues about that?" Chiron asked.

"Well Apollo told us another goddess can help, but when we asked Nike, what was it she said?" Percy asked.

Natalie remembered what Nike said, "Although it is not fair that he is a duck, you can still be victorious."

"Hmm," Chiron said.

"Wait! She put emphasis on fair." Natalie said.

"Could it be Nemesis?" Percy asked. "She is the goddess of revenge and equality. That is why she is like the symbol of court houses."

The machine beeped. One minute left.

"Possibly. Listen, be safe, if it is Nemesis, she can be tricky." Chiron said.

"We will be." Natalie said.

And with that the water shut off and the rainbow faded, and with it the image of Chiron.

Natalie fingered her Chimera tooth necklace, "What now?" she asked.


	10. Chapter 10 Some Useful Help

**I don't own Percy Jackson :( I do own Natalie though :)**

Chapter 10 Some Useful Help

"Well that was strange." Percy said.

"Will you tell me what is strange! You keep on muttering that but I can't figure what you mean by it." Natalie said.

"We didn't have to pay for the Iris message. You usually have to pay for it with a drachma." Percy said.

Natalie thought about it for a moment, then it came to her, "Hermes is the god of messengers, correct?"

"Yeah." Percy said.

"Well we were Iris messaging, right?" Natalie said.

"What is your point?" Percy asked.

"Maybe I get free Iris messaging because my dad is the god of messages." Natalie said.

"Wow, useful." Percy said.

Nico quacked to remind us that he was in fact there and still a duck.

"Let's find Nemesis." Natalie said.

"Where do you think she is?" Percy asked.

"Like I know where goddesses hang out." Natalie said.

Nico waddled around, seeming very anxious. "Wait! I have an idea!" Natalie said.

"What." Percy said, while Nico quacked at the same time.

"Goddess of revenge and fairness correct?" Natalie said.

"Yes," Percy said, like a question. He obviously didn't see where she was going with this.

"The court house." Natalie said. "She is probably there, or at least a statue of her, we can ask her about showing up." **(A/N: No it is not really Nemesis, I just needed her to show up somehow. It is actually Dike.) **

"That just might work." Percy said.

"Quack." Nico quacked, he was probably getting annoyed of the fact that he was still a duck after talking to two gods after being turned into one. But he was probably annoyed for a while now.

They walked off down the main street and eventually did find the court house. Natalie saw the statue, and it sure looked weird. It was marble and she was wearing a blindfold over her eyes. She was also holding an old-fashion scale-balance type thing.

"That is Nemesis? That not at all how Leo and Hazel described her." Percy said.

"Who?" Natalie asked. She thought the names might have sounded familiar, but she was at camp for less than a week, so she wasn't sure.

"A story for another time, let's just figure this out." Percy said.

"How do you suppose we ask her to come here, or do you think her statue will just come alive?" Natalie asked.

"For the sake of my sanity, I hope she actually shows up." Percy said.

Natalie heard something, it sounded like a revving motorcycle. She turned around and saw a biker, what was weird about the bike, it seemed impossible to work, because the wheels looked like Pac-man in saying about a third of the tire was cut out.

"Could that be her?" Natalie asked.

"Well, her tires look like her symbol, you can see it on her cabin at camp." Percy said.

"Well we shouldn't keep her waiting." Natalie said. She walked over to the biker, with Nico at her heels.

"Um, hello, Lady Nemesis." Natalie said. Percy had come up behind her and that was reassuring.

"What do you two need?" Nemesis asked.

"Well we were wondering, if you could turn Nico, back into, uh, Nico. As you can see Eris turned him into a duck." Percy said.

Nemesis removed her biking helmet to reveal her face. Percy and Natalie gasped at the same time, and Nico let out a surprised quack.

"You look like Nancy Bobofit." Percy said.

"What are you talking about, she looks like my mother?" Natalie asked.

"Your mother? What in Ha-." Percy started but suddenly stopped, when he noticed Nemesis' amused smile.

"What is going on? How come we all see different people?" Nico asked.

At hearing Nico's voice Natalie and Percy swung around and saw Nico, back to his normal self. Natalie was overwhelmed with joy.

"Nico your back!" Natalie said, and enveloped the son of Hades in a hug. She held him for about two seconds, then realized herself. She let go turned around and blushed. Thankfully, with her back turn, neither of the boys could see her, unfortunately Nemesis could see her just fine.

"You all see people you resent, people who caused you hardships." Nemesis explained.

"Thank you so much for your help Lady Nemesis. How could we ever repay you?" Natalie said.

"Getting my scale back would be nice." Nemesis said.

"Your scale? Like that one?" Natalie asked pointing the scale in the statue's hand.

"Yes, it was stolen as well." Nemesis said.

"It will be done my Lady." Nico said. He sounded all mid-evil which Natalie found so hot.

"I shall help you out more. Since you have good manners. That truck, is heading to Los Vegas. Hop on, they won't find you until you reach the destination." Nemesis said. Pointing to a big truck, it looked like a moving van, the back all of the sudden opened. The truck was stopped at a red light, so they had perhaps, thirty seconds before it would start to move again.

"Thanks for all you help Lady Nemesis." Nico said. They grabbed their bags and ran for the truck. No drivers seemed to notice three teenagers jumping into the back of a moving truck at the red light.

Once all three of them were on, the door slammed shut, leaving them in the dark. Luckily Celestial Bronze emanates some light, so Percy and Natalie took out their swords to give them some light. They found a couch that sat three people so they went and sat on it. Percy on the left, Nico on the right and Natalie in the middle.

"So Nico, what was it like being a duck?" Percy asked.

Nico might have been glaring but it was hard to tell in the dim light.

"What do you think?" Nico asked. "Oh wait you don't think, your brain is full of kelp. Annabeth is right."

Natalie said nothing, because she was unsure what to do. She was actually scared she was in between two of the most powerful demigods, that might get in a fight any second.

Nico and Percy then broke into laughter, confusing Natalie even more.

"Same old Nico." Percy said.

"It was scary being a duck, you know powerless. Having to depended on you guys, like with the kracken, and every monster since our lovely visit with Eris." Nico said.

"Nico that's not your fault Eris was just causing discord, that is what she does best." Percy said.

"Hey it's her job." Natalie said with a laugh.

After about a minute of silence Percy spoke up. "Hey, I'm going to get some sleep."

Soon enough we heard him snoring. Natalie smirked and she could hear Nico stifle a laugh.

"So back at the court house, um." Nico said.

Natalie blushed, thankfully it was too dark to see. "Yeah about that, I'm sorry if I embarrassed you."

"No, I was just wondering, why did you do it?" Nico asked.

Natalie blushed harder. Nico obviously didn't know how embarrassed he was making her. "Well, I sort of… like you."

"Oh." Nico said his turn to blush. "Um, since when?"

"When I first saw you at camp. I was so embarrassed in what I was wearing when I hot guy came up." Natalie said. She then realized what she said. "Oh gods this is embarrassing."

"You think I am hot?" Nico asked.

"Yeah." Natalie said.

"Most people think I am dark and mysterious, if not emo." Nico said.

"You…emo? What would make someone think that?" Natalie asked.

"The pale skin, dark hair, clothes, the fact that I am pretty much a loner." Nico said.

Nico then took Natalie by surprise, and kissed her softly on the cheek. When he removed himself from her face Natalie put her hand gently on the area.

"What was that for?" Natalie asked.

"For giving me a chance, instead of writing me off as the emo kid who doesn't fit in." Nico said.

"When Nemesis took off her helmet you said all three of us saw someone different. Who did you see?" Natalie said after a few moments of silent.

"Persephone." Nico said.

"Your step-mother?" Natalie asked.

"She turns me into flowers, mostly dandelions." Nico said.

"Wow," Natalie said.

"You said you saw your mother?" Nico said.

"We are not on the best terms." Natalie said.

"Oh." Nico said.

"What about your mom?" Natalie asked.

Although Natalie couldn't see it Nico's face darkened. "She died a long time ago, I don't remember her much." Nico said.

Natalie didn't push it. She didn't need to make Nico angry.

"Get some sleep, I haven't been on watch in a while." Nico said.

Natalie got a little more comfortable but it was hard. Nico smiled and patted his thighs. Natalie lied down on her cushion curled into a near ball but laid my head on Nico's lap.

Natalie fell asleep quickly and with no dreams.

**Yeah we got some Nicatlie action! Maybe more to come**


	11. Chapter 11 The Fourth Memeber

Chapter 11 the fourth member

Natalie and Percy were jolted awake when the truck came to a screeching halt.

"I think we are here." Nico said.

"Really?" Percy asked sarcastically.

"We better get out of here." Natalie said.

They found their way to the door and opened the door. Luckily the drivers were busy and nobody saw them. "Percy you know the way to the hotel?" Natalie asked.

"If I remember right, it's this way." Percy said.

Percy led Nico and Natalie, down the streets of Los Vegas. There was so many different casinos but that didn't help, they needed to find the Lotus Hotel and Casino.

All of the sudden Nico stopped.

"Nico is something wrong?" Percy asked.

"I remember, I remember everything. About here anyways." Nico said.

"Really, yeah I remember the kindly one bring me and Bianca here. The time we spent here. It is this way." Nico said. We started down the street at top speed, Natalie and Percy had to fun to catch up. They eventually came upon a huge building. This building was big for a hotel, at least 50 stories. The name was on the roof, but with her dyslexia Natalie couldn't read what it said. But in the bottom window was a neon lotus flower.

"Okay guys remember, no matter what, don't get roped into their con. We go in, find the fourth member drag him or her out and continue on the quest." Percy said.

"The problem, how do we know who we are looking for?" Natalie asked.

"I am sure we will figure it out." Nico said.

As they walked in Natalie's jaw dropped. The whole bottom 5 floors were a kids paradise. There were so many games, and indoor ski slope, water slide, and bungee jump. The place seemed so fun, Natalie wanted to stay forever. She was about to go over to the food court then she figured, this is part of the magic.

"I think the fourth member has to be a demigod." Nico said.

"Okay, so walk around and try to find someone who could be a demigod. Split up but don't play anything or get distracted." Percy said.

"Okay." Nico and Natalie said at the same time. The three of them turned and went off in different directions.

Natalie saw about three people, all seemed completely mortal, the way they were acting didn't seem like they were the fourth. As she walked by a game, the girl playing accidentally turned and tripped Natalie. Natalie fell to the ground.

"Oh, I am sorry." the girl said.

"It's fine." Natalie said. She looked up, the girl had short sort of choppy black hair. Her eyes were a really dark brown, almost black. Her clothes were the strangest, really old fashioned like WWI.

"My name s Rachel." the girl introduced, she reached her hand down and helped Natalie up. (**A/N: Not Rachel E. Dare. Completely different.)**

"How long have you been here?" Natalie asked.

"Oh, about three or four months. I love it here." Rachel said.

"Okay, hey I might sound crazy but have you heard of the Greek Myths?" Natalie asked.

"Yeah." Rachel said.

"Well they are real and still around." Natalie said.

"I know that, I am a demigod." Rachel said.

"Okay, I am one too. But you need to get out of here." Natalie said.

"Why, this place is great?" Rachel asked.

"Rachel who is the president right now?" Natalie asked.

"Wilson, he is great! He is keeping us out of the Great War." Rachel said.

"What year is it?" Natalie asked.

"1915." Rachel said.

"Oh gods. Listen Rachel you have been in here for 100 years. It is 2015. (**A/N Since Nico is 14 in MoA [2013] and he is now 16, I am making the year 2015)**" Natalie said.

"Can you prove it?" Rachel asked.

Natalie remembered the prophecy, the fourth shall be bought with a dime. She dug in her back pocket and pulled out a dime. She looked at it, it was a brand new dime, made in the year 2015. "Look at this dime." Natalie said handing Rachel the dime.

"This is real?" Rachel asked.

"Yes." Natalie said.

"I need to get out of here." Rachel said.

"We need to get my friends first." Natalie asked.

Natalie ran with Rachel closely on her heels. They found Percy quick.

"Percy I found her. Where is Nico?" Natalie said.

"I don't know. I will take um…" Percy said.

"Rachel." Rachel provided.

"Rachel and head out, be quick about getting out." Percy said.

Percy and Rachel headed out the door of the hotel.

Natalie looked around and found Nico.

"Nico come on." Natalie said

"So…much…fun." Nico said.

"Nico we got the fourth member we need to get to the Gulf of Mexico now." Natalie said.

"What?" Nico asked. "I am not leaving. I am going to stay here forever." Nico said. He seemed to be in a trance.

Natalie needed to figure out how to snap him out of it.

Nico turned around to walk away, but Natalie stopped him, and turned him around. She brought him close and kissed him, right on the lips. The kiss lasted for five seconds and for those five seconds nothing else mattered.

When they broke away, Nico seemed to be snapped out of his trance.

"Oh my gods, we need to get out of here." Nico said.

"Agreed." Natalie said. They turned and ran for the door.

Percy and Rachel were waiting for them outside the hotel.

"Good we all made it." Percy said.

"Will you please explain what is going on?" Rachel asked.

Percy quickly checked the newspaper stand, "Good it is still 2015. But we were in there for two days."

"Two days!" Natalie said. They were barely in there for twenty minutes, at least it felt like that.

"Okay Rachel, you want explanations." Natalie said. Then she started explaining the whole quest starting with her and Percy's dream.

"Wow." Rachel said.

"So you are a demigod." Nico said.

"Yeah, my father is Hades." Rachel said.

Nico's face was priceless. Percy busted out laughing at it, while Natalie tried to stifle hers.

"I'm Percy Jackson, son of Poseidon." Percy introduced.

"Natalie Cox, daughter of Hermes." Natalie said. Nico was still in a state of shock so Natalie decided to introduce him to his new sister. "And this is Nico di' Angelo, son of Hades."

"Okay so we have to get to the Gulf of Mexico by when?" Rachel said.

"I don't think there is a dead line." Percy said.

Just then a note fell from the sky. It was in ancient Greek so Natalie could read it. "If we don't receive our items of power by 7:00 p.m. tomorrow we will start WW3! Signed the Olympians."

"WW3? There was another world war?" Rachel asked.

"Yeah about 30 years after the first one ended." Percy said.

"So we have about," Natalie looked at her watch. 8:00 p.m., "23 hours until the gods unleash WW3."

"Sooner than that, the time difference, it is 11 in New York. We have 20 hours." Percy said.

"Oh Styx." Nico said.

Styx was right, the only way to travel that fast would be by plane, and the three out the four of them couldn't get on a plane.

"I know a way to get to Mexico real fast." Rachel said.

"How?" Percy asked.

"Shadow Travel, Nico can you do it too?" Rachel asked.

"Yeah." Nico said.  
"I'll take Natalie and you take Percy, shadow travel to the Gulf of Mexico." Rachel said.

"I'm not so sure, I have never taken somebody else with me." Nico said.

"Are you concerned about it?" Percy asked.

"Yeah!" Nico said.

"Perfect!" Natalie said.

"What?" Nico said.

"The line in the prophecy, 'Four shall return, one full of concern.' You need to be concerned to fulfill the prophecy." Natalie said.

"Okay let's do this." Nico said.

Rachel grabbed Natalie's hand, and Nico, Percy's. First Nico and Percy disappeared into shadows, the Rachel and Natalie.

Shadow travel was scary and awesome at the same time. It was creepy, shadows, darkness, and weird screams, but the sensation felt amazing.

When they popped out of the shadows Nico and Rachel nearly passed out. Natalie and Percy had to catch them.

"Maybe we should rent a hotel and find the thief in the morning." Natalie said.

"Yeah." Percy said.

They found a hotel rather quick, but they forgot one thing, they were in Mexico, so the clergyman was speaking Spanish. **(A/N: better get google translate open.) **Percy was busy trying to hold up Rachel and Nico, trying to keep them off the dirty floor.

"Hola." Mr. Garcia, as his name plate stated, said.

"Um, hola." Natalie said.

"¿No tienes cuatro un poco tarde?" Mr. Garcia asked.

"um, si?" Natalie said. She wasn't sure of what he asked.

"Número de habitaciones?" Mr. Garcia asked.

Natalie quickly deciphered what he said, number, and something that sounded like habitats, which was probably rooms.

"Uno." Natalie said, she knew that much.

"¿Tipo de pago?" Mr. Garcia asked.

Natalie just stared at him, hoping he would realize she didn't understand.

"Usted no entiende español?" Mr. Garcia asked.

"I don't understand." Natalie said.

Mr. Garcia sighed, apparently he knew enough English to understand what Natalie said. He rubbed his fingers together like he wanted money.

"Oh, payment." Natalie said. She fiddled though her bag and picked out all the remaining money.

"Dinero americano? Dado que usted es los niños voy a aceptar esto y cambiarlo más tarde. Aquí está la clave. Sala de veintitrés años." Mr. Garcia said. Taking the money and handing Natalie a room key.

Natalie grabbed the key and smiled. Luckily there was the number 23 was on the top.

Natalie led the way with Percy behind her, dragging the two passed out children of Hades.

The room was pretty disgusting. There were two beds, so we figured boys on one girls on the other. Percy set Nico on bed and Rachel on the other. Natalie quickly joined Rachel and Percy, Nico.

Rachel's sleep was full of weird dreams.


	12. Chapter 12 The Thief

Chapter 12: The Thief

Natalie was the last to wake up. Everyone else was sitting around the room talking quietly. When Nico saw her he smiled, "And she is alive."

Natalie gave him an annoyed glare. She glanced at the clock. 10 a.m.

"Styx, guys why didn't you wake me sooner?" Natalie said.

"Yeah, Percy why didn't we?" Nico asked.

"Because when I woke you up on the train you nearly knocked my teeth loose." Percy said.

"We have nine hours!" Natalie said.

"Eight, we are still one time zone from New York." Percy said.

"Percy when did you actually get a brain, and not just have a head full of sea weed?" Nico asked.

"When I started dating Annabeth, her nerdyness rubs off on me." Percy said.

"You just called your girlfriend a nerd." Natalie pointed out.

"Don't tell her I said that." Percy said.

"Um, hey, we should probably talk about more pressing matters, who is the thief?" Rachel said.

"Well it has to be a demigod, no immortal can steal another's directly." Percy said.

"Well didn't you say Ares had it last time, even though Luke stole it for Kronos?" Nico asked.

"Yeah, but Ares item was stolen, so I doubt he got someone to do it to start a war." Percy said. Just then Natalie figured it all out.

"Beware fake friends." Natalie said.

"Huh?" Everyone else asked.

"Percy and Nico, remember what Apollo told us in Chicago. 'Beware fake friends.' What goes along with war?" Natalie asked, although she already knew the answer.

"Discord, and Chaos." Rachel said.

"Percy the big red snake. In Egyptian mythology the embodiment of chaos often appeared as a huge red snake. And Eris tried to slow us down by turning Nico into a duck." Natalie said.

"Eris had someone, probably one of her kids, steal the items, so she could give them to chaos. If World War 3 broke out it would be utter chaos and discord." Percy summed up.

"Who is Chaos?" Nico asked

"Before there was even Gaea, there was Chaos." Percy said.

"Utter chaos, and Chaos wants it back." Natalie said.

"We have to stop this. We need to get the items back from Eris before she gives them to Chaos!" Rachel said.

The four of them ran out of the room, and headed back towards the beach. And they spotted exactly the person they were looking for.

"You guys are smarter than I thought." Eris said. There was a black duffel bag next to her. Natalie supposed that was where the items of power were.

"Hand over the items Eris." Natalie said.

"You were the polite one." Eris said.

"Yeah, that was until you turned my boyfriend into a duck and are about to start World War 3!" Natalie said.

"Exactly I must start the war!" Eris said.

"Once Chaos is done with the gods, you will go too. You are leading yourself to your own destruction!" Natalie said.

"If you want the items, you will have to fight me." Eris said. She pulled out a trident, Poseidon's trident.

"Oh Styx." Natalie muttered. She pulled out her sword. To make it even more unfair, Eris grew to a height of ten feet, the trident had to be at least seven feet long now. Natalie's sword was only two feet, so Eris had and extra five feet of weapon. Natalie wasn't sure how she was going to defeat this fallen goddess like it said in the prophecy.

It took five minutes of dodging before Eris started to tire out, she was not used to this weapon. Natalie saw her opportunity. She knew she couldn't kill a god, just do some severe damage. She brought her sword up as far as she could, which only reached about as far as Eris' bellybutton ring. Stabbed it and brought her sword down all the way down her left leg down to the foot. She cried out in pain, dropping the trident.

"You shall pay for this demigod." Eris said. Her body began to glow.

"Natalie don't look!" Percy called out.

Natalie just had enough time to look away and close her eyes, when she could feel the air get much hotter.

When the feeling settled, Natalie looked again, Eris was gone.

Percy walked over, "A god's true divine form, will destroy any mortal who looks upon it."

Nico and Rachel joined them.

It was now eleven o'clock, central time. They had seven hours to get to New York and return the items.

"How are we going to get to New York in seven hours?" Natalie asked.

"We would need to fly." Rachel said.

"Yeah, but if I fly and most likely you two, Nico and Rachel, Zeus will blast us out of the sky." Percy said.

"Can we shadow travel again?" Natalie asked.

"I am still too weak." Nico said.

"Me too." Rachel said.

An idea popped into Natalie's head, her dad was god of travels, she could get on a plane easily. "Do you two have enough energy to get to Texas?" Natalie asked, grabbing the bag of items, putting the trident back in it as well.

"I think so." Rachel said.

"Why." Percy asked.

"I could fly from Texas to New York easily." Natalie said.

"What about us then?" Nico asked.

"You shadow travel to New York whenever you are ready." Natalie said.

"Are you sure?" Percy asked.

"Percy, if I don't do this, the biggest war in the past seventy years will break out." Natalie said. The wind blew around her auburn hair making her fell all dramatic.

"Okay, I guess we have to trust you to do this." Percy said.

"But we are out of money." Nico said.

Percy seemed to remember something. "Rachel, do you still have your Casino cash card?"

"Yeah." Rachel said, taking the card out of her pocket.

"After Annabeth, Grover, and I got out of the Casino, Annabeth used this to pay the taxi man to drive us to L.A." Percy said. "It might just work to get Natalie to New York."

"Kay, let me have it." Natalie said taking the card from Rachel.

"Okay let's get Natalie to Texas, y'all." Nico said.

Natalie stared at him. "What?" Nico asked.

"Never do that again, or I will kill you bring you back, and kill you again." Natalie said.

"Harsh." Nico said.

"All because I love you." Natalie said, giving him a quick peck on the check.

Natalie holding the bag with at least 14 powerful items, grabbed onto Nico and Rachel grabbed Percy's hand. They all shadow traveled to Houston, Texas.

They were luckily one block from the airport. Natalie gave a quick good-bye to Percy and the two almost fainting children of Hades.

When she went up to the counter she told the lady she needed a ticket for the one o'clock flight to New York.

"How old are you?" the lady asked.

"Sixteen. My father is in New York and is expecting me there at seven." Natalie explained with as little information as possible.

"Do you have the money?" the lady asked.

"He gave me his credit card." Natalie said, handing her the Casino cash card.

The woman looked skeptical but scanned the card anyways. The computer made a 'ca-ching' noise like and old cash register.

"Enjoy your flight ma'am." the lady said, handing Natalie a ticket, first class too.

Natalie went off to security. Then it hit her, she is trying to get 14 all powerful weapons to New York. Why did she think she could get through security. But when they scanned her bag, Natalie saw on the screen, it looked like just a bunch of clothes.

"Thank you Mist." Natalie thought.

The lady over the PA shortly called first class people heading towards New York to board the plane.

It took a while but eventually the plane took off.

While in flight, when they were free to move about the cabin, Natalie went into the bathroom, hoping to Iris message Percy. She managed to make a rainbow in the sink.

"Oh Iris, goddess of the rainbow, show me Percy Jackson, in Texas." Natalie said, just like before she didn't have to pay the golden drachma fee.

Percy appeared in the rainbow.

"Percy I am on my way to New York." Natalie said.

"Great, now remember you need to go to the Empire State Building, and convince the guy at the front desk to let you up to the 600th floor." Percy said.

"Yeah, how are Rachel and Nico?" Natalie asked.

"Passed out, resting up for the trip back home." Percy said.

Over the intercom Natalie heard the pilot requesting everyone back to their seats.

"I have to go now. See you soon." Natalie said. She put her hand through the rainbow and the image dissolved.

Once back at her seat Natalie felt the plane coming in for a landing. Once landed, Natalie got the duffel bag and headed out to catch a cab.

"Where to ma'am?" the cabbie asked.

"The Empire State Building please." Natalie said.

Disco lights on the ceiling flickered on and off. The cabbie turned around. "You are in the Cash Cab!" **(A/N: sorry couldn't resist.) **

"Really? I don't have time for this! I need to get to the Empire State Building in," Natalie said, checking her watch, 6:30, crap. "thirty minutes."

"Well let's hope you get the questions right." Ben, as Natalie remembered his name from the t.v. show said.

"And you are on our special, Mythology quiz show." Ben said.

"What?" Natalie asked.

"All the questions are about Mythology." Ben explained, "First question, for $50. Who was the Greek god of the Underworld?"

"Hades." Natalie said.

"Correct. Next question, who was the slayer of the Nemean Lion?" Ben asked.

"Heracles." Natalie said.

"Are you sure?" Ben asked, trying to through me off.

"Positive." Natalie said.

"You are correct." Ben said. The whole time he was asking Natalie stupidly easy questions, and she was racking up the cash. By the time they reached the Empire State Building, Natalie had $2,500.

"We have reached your destination. Would you like to go for the video bonus and earn possibly $5,000?" Ben asked.

Natalie checked her watch, she had ten minutes.

"Sure why not." Natalie said.

The voice over on the screen said something while showing an ancient looking statue.

"The image show a statue of the Titan lord of time consuming his six children, Hestia, Demeter, Hera, Hades, Poseidon and Zeus. What is the name of this Titan lord?" the video asked.

"Really, Kronos, final answer." Natalie said.

"You are correct. You just won $5,000 in the Cash Cab. Here it is.

Natalie grabbed the money and put it in the side pocket of the duffel bag. "Thanks," Natalie said and climbed out of the cab. She didn't say anything as she walked into the building.


	13. Chapter 13 Father

Chapter 13 Father

Natalie walked up to the guy at the front counter. "Excuse me." Natalie said.

"What?" the guy asked.

"I need to go up to the 600th floor please." Natalie said.

"No such floor." the guy said, it probably was an act.

Natalie put the bag on the table. "Listen in this bag I have virtually 14 super bombs. Unless I get up to Olympus in eight minutes, the gods are going to start World War 3. And here you have me stuck down here. Do you really want to be the cause of the biggest war in the past 70 years?" Natalie said.

The guy paled considerably and handed me a security pass. "Make sure no one is in the elevator with you." the guy said.

"Thank you." Natalie said, grabbing the card and the bag, she walked into the elevator. She stuck the card in a slot, and a button appeared, 600. Natalie pushed it. The elevator started to go up.

The music caught Natalie by surprise. It was Bon Jovi's "You Give Love a Bad Name." **(A/N I put my MP3 on shuffle, that is what came up.)** After about a minute the elevator arrived at the top. Olympus was huge and Natalie had to get to the top in five minutes, perfect. Luckily she knew the way because of the dream. She arrived in the gods' throne room. It looked like it did in her dream, including all the twenty foot gods. She smartly bowed and waited for acknowledgement.

"What is it half-blood?" Zeus, Natalie figured, asked.

"Um, I have retrieved your items of power." Natalie said.

"Well bring them out." Zeus said.

"Yes, lord." Natalie said. One by one she brought out the items and handed them to the god they belonged to. When Natalie handed the scale to Nemesis, she gave Natalie a smile. Lastly came out, the caduceus. Natalie went to the base of Hermes', her father's, throne and set it at the base and bowed again. Natalie kept the mostly empty duffel bag slung over her shoulder, the only thing left in it was her $5000.

"The meeting is adjourned." Zeus said, "You all may leave."

All the gods left, minus Zeus, Hades and Hermes.

"You have done us a great service, half-blood, and for that we are grateful." Zeus said. "Tell us who was the thief."

"I don't know who the original thief was but Eris had them and was planning on giving them to Chaos." Natalie said.

"The thief was probably one of Eris' kids." Hermes said. "Just doing as their mother ordered."

"For that, the demigod shall not be punished." Zeus said. "I must go now." Zeus flashed out of the room. Leaving Natalie alone in the room with her father and Hades.

Hades came over to Natalie, and her heart quickened. "I thank you for getting my daughter out of the Casino."

"You welcome lord Hades." Natalie said.

"Don't think I don't know about your newly found relationship with my son." Hades said. He too flashed out of the room.

Natalie was alone with her father. Hermes still sat at his throne, still twenty feet tall, looking at Natalie, seemingly studying her.

"You did well, Natalie." Hermes finally said.

"Thank you father." Natalie said.

_"Yesss, thank you."_ a feminine snaky voice said in my mind.

_"I sssupposssse I sssshould ssssay thank you assssss __**(**_**A/N: As not well you know)**_ well." _a masculine snaky voice said in my mind.

"Ah, that is Martha and George." Hermes said with a sly smile.

Natalie didn't know how to respond to that.

"You've made me proud Natalie, you always have. That idea you had to change your grade genius! But you didn't have to do that to make me proud." Hermes said.

Natalie looked up at him in confusion.

"I've always been proud of you. You don't have to do any of that stuff to make me notice you. I always have noticed you." Hermes said.

"My dad is proud of me?" Natalie thought.

"_Of courssssssse he isssss." _George said.

"_Why wouldn't he be?"_ Martha said.

"The way you strategize and figure things out, makes Athena jealous. The way you stole the flag without detection, amazing." Hermes said.

"Really?" Natalie asked. She really had a hard time believe this.

_"Man, do you have trussssst isssuessss?" _George asked.

_"George, be niccccce. Sssshe isss sssstil getting usssssed to thissssss." _Martha said.

"Always. I should also warn you, Conner and Travis found out you took their Coke and Oreo's, they are not very happy." Hermes said.

"I'm your daughter after all." Natalie said with a smirk.

Hermes got up and shrunk down to the size of a normal size man.

"Always remember that." Hermes said. And pulled her into a hug.

"Good bye father." Natalie said as she turned she realized something.

"_Check your bag." _Martha gave me a hint.

"Dad give me my money back." Natalie said.

Hermes smirked, "How did you know?" tossing her the bundle of money back.

"Like someone could steal from the Princess of Thieves." Natalie said. She also did not want to rat Martha out.

_"Ratssss are deliccccciousssss."_ George said.

Hermes smiled at that, the princess thing, he was too used to hearing George saying that to every demigod, then he flashed out.

Natalie went back down to the lobby and found Nico waiting outside for her.

"Feeling better?" Natalie asked.

"Way. I'm supposed to take you back to camp." Nico said.

"Let's go." Natalie said.

Natalie took Nico's outstretched hand and he shadow traveled them back to camp.

Chiron came up to Natalie. "Great job Natalie."

"Thank you Chiron." Natalie said. "Oh about the van, how much money do you need for the new one?"

"$2,000 but don't worry about it child, those things happen." Chiron said.

"Yeah I don't have to worry, I have the money right here." Natalie said hand Chiron $2,000.

"Where did you get this?" Chiron asked. I guess he thought I robbed a bank.

"When I got in a cab from the airport, it happened to be the Cash Cab, I won $5,000." Natalie said.

"Well you better hide that from your brothers." Chiron said.

"Of course." Natalie said.

Natalie walked off, heading towards her cabin. Travis was sitting on the porch. "Natalie your back! Great job."

"On to more pressing matters," Conner said, he jumped down from the roof. "You took our Oreo's and Cola!"

"I'll pay you back." Natalie said.

"Yeah right!" Travis said.

Natalie handed them each $100. "Whatever you say sis." Conner said.

"Yeah whatever you say." Travis agreed.

After a nice, stress free, dream free sleep, Natalie finally felt refreshed for the first time since her quest started.

The next day Nico, Percy and Natalie burned their burial shrouds, a tradition when a camper returns from a quest.

As it turned out, Rachel was a camper at Camp Half-Blood before, way back in 1915. Chiron was surprised to see her return, because he was sure she was dead.

Rachel was surprised that Hades had a cabin now, she used to have to stay in the super crowded Hermes cabin, back when it was crowded with un-claimed demigods and demigods of minor gods.

Natalie eventually did call her mom tell her she was okay, but she would be staying at friend of her father's strawberry farm, for a long time. Her mom was completely okay with it, go figure.

Over the summer Natalie played many pranks with her brothers. Nico and Natalie went to the fourth of July fireworks together. The Aphrodite cabin was really excited that there was a new couple at camp.

Natalie decided to stay at Camp year, round to avoid her mom. Often when Nico went to the Underworld, she would go to. This for some reason mellowed out Persephone's mood so she rarely turned Nico into a flower when Natalie was there.

Natalie's life was back to normal, or as normal as a life can be when one of your parents is a Greek good. But hey that is life when you are the Princess of Thieves.

The End


	14. Authors note

Well that is the end. Tell me what you think. Do you think it went to fast? PM me with ideas of stories you want me to write. Read some more of my stories, follow me, favorite me I don't care. I hoped you liked reading this, I sure enjoyed writing it. Did you like Natico? Review!

I plan on writing a cross over next, just watch me.


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